Notes From an Environmentalist.
The Vineyard Wind Incident
The Vineyard Wind Incident
On August 8, 2024 I visited Salem to view the Sea Installer, a high-tech vessel that should represent the energy future that will allow the United States to get a handle on global warming and continue to enjoy the benefits of human civilization.
But there was one serious fly in the ointment. The reason the Sea Installer was tied up at the dock in Salem, instead of at sea installing wind turbines is that on July 13, the same day former President Trump was shot, a blade from one of the turbines tore off and landed in the ocean.
It was a public relations disaster with scenes of pieces of fiberglass and balsa wood littering the beaches of Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket and Cape Cod during the height of the tourist season.
But to put the incident in perspective if an accident had happened at the nearby Seabrook Nuclear Plant or the decommissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power plant in Plymouth, a large portion of New Hampshire and southern Massachusetts could have been rendered uninhabitable.
By the same token, if an oil tanker had gone aground the beaches of Cape Cod and the islands could have been rendered lifeless for years. The most thoroughly studied oil spill in history had happened in nearby Falmouth in 1969 and you can still unaltered oil oozing up through the marsh sediments at the site.
Hopefully this incident will turn out to be a temporary setback and the Sea Installer will be back on station building the first offshore wind project in the United States allowing us to continue to reap the benefits of human civilization as we combat climate change.