On Monday Nantucket beaches were closed to hot families and their children. A turbine from the Vineyard Wind installation had disintegrated. The broken blade sent dangerous shards of fiberglass, chunks of Styrofoam and harmful chemicals flying into and across the ocean.  No reason has been given for the catastrophic failure. There was no unusual weather event in the area.  It is a warning we should heed. 

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Today we hear that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has shut down all operations until further notice. That action should be expanded to all the offshore wind projects along our shore.

Wind energy is a failed technology that is not capable of fueling our modern society and it has now demonstrated that these gigantic turbine blades cannot operate safely in the ocean environment. 

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The first turbine came into service in early January. It was shut down within days and only in the last month have ten turbines been put into service. Despite only operating for one short month, the turbine blades are shredding, sending fiberglass shards flying at high speed into the oceans, filling the water with dangerous flotsam and chemical waste.  Marine mammals and fish are at risk. As they filter water through their gills or swallow fiberglass-filled water as they feed, they are in danger.  On shore, people have been banned from the sand, their feet would likely be stabbed and cut by the fiberglass projectiles.  The warning could not be more clear. 

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We haven’t even had a bad storm yet.  No hurricane, no nor-easter has yet pounded the waters off our coast.  These blades are disintegrating without the help of bad weather.  Developers whose money was a stake would stop.  But Sheldon Whitehouse has showered the offshore wind industry with such lucrative subsidies, that they have thrown good sense to the wind.  The grift is too good. 

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The best interests of ratepayers and taxpayers, of our marine animals and the natural habitat, of our commercial and recreational fishermen, of our families and children wanting to play on the beach and of our economy and family budgets simply pales next to the immense wealth that foreign companies and the politicians who enable them are making. 

This industrialization of our oceans must be stopped.  The wind industry is not capable of fueling modern society. It is intermittent, unreliable and extremely expensive. Our family budgets cannot afford it. Our oceans cannot afford it. Our economy will break under its weight. And our futures and those of our children and grandchildren will suffer.  

There are better technologies and fuels to provide America’s energy needs. Industrializing our oceans should be abandoned before any more damage is done.