Lightning struck a wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, last week, further damaging a turbine operated by Vineyard Wind that made headlines last year when its blade fell off, polluting the ocean and nearby beaches.
[RELATED: Trump Places Indefinite Halt on Offshore Wind Development and New England Fisherman Celebrate…]
“The coverup blows on. Vineyard Wind’s lack of transparency around the structural integrity of its mammoth wind turbines is deeply frustrating to fishermen,” said Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association.
“In fact, Vineyard Wind officials met in February with officials from the Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement to discuss improving communications over safety issues. Foreign offshore wind developers seem breezily dismissive of commercial fishermen,” he added.
The incident allegedly occurred last Thursday, and a representative of Vineyard Wind has since confirmed to the New Bedford Light that, although a visual inspection appeared to confirm that lightning struck the turbine, they claimed that no additional debris had fallen into the ocean.
One outlet, the Nantucket Current, reported that the Coast Guard said that the nub of the previously damaged turbine blade caught fire and detached.
The Vineyard Wind farm made headlines last year when the same turbine broke during a routine test, scattering fragments of a blade in the ocean and polluting it with fiberglass.
Despite the risks and potential environmental hazards of offshore wind turbines, Democrats across the country, including Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine), have pushed forward with plans to develop the nation’s coasts with towering turbines to produce “clean” energy.
Those plans hit a roadblock when President Donald Trump took office and signed an executive order preventing the entire U.S. mainland coastline from being leased for offshore wind development indefinitely.
“Windmills are an economic and environmental disaster. I don’t want even one built during my Administration. The thousands of dead and broken ones should be ripped down ASAP. Most expensive energy, only work with massive government subsidies, which we will no longer pay,” said President Trump, days before he took office and signed the order.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="36285 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=36285">8 Comments
What part of no more subsidies does Governor Mills and the Democrats not understand? It’s Over. The Governors Energy Office aka the Department of Energy Resources was created by partisan politicians to promote offshore wind and EVs. It used federal money to grow from 6 staff members to 22 staff members. It is begging for funds from state taxpayers to replace loss of federal funds. It needs to be abolished. Defund the GEO.
Green New Scam!
The “green energy” SCAM benefits only corrupt politicians and profiteers !
LOVE OUR POTUS!!! stick it where the sun don’t shine janet mills
Build one new generation nuclear power plant at the former Maine Yankee site and it will out-produce the combined output of all the wind turbines and commercial solar arrays in Maine.
Lighting strike? I’d say they need to douse the places that are getting windmills. I have a book that helps teach dousing for water and other stuff. It says you can use a map and find stuff by dangling a bob over it to answer questions about where things might be or where to put them . We all know of stories about some places being hit with lightning or calamities over and over. Or just go nuke.. After dousing the sites.
Pay offs got us a turban. Now we can pay to clean it up.
You want to talk about subsiding energy sources…have any one of you ever researched how much subsidy the fossil fuel receives in comparison to offshore wind? Fossil fuel received about $750 billion in the USA compared to offshore wind which received about $150 billion in a year. You just don’t want to believe the information at face value, the fossil fuel lobbyists have entire control of the energy policy.