by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
November 29, 2023
Trudy Coxe relentlessly pursued funding to preserve Newport’s acclaimed mansions. She helped bring the city’s “Gilded Age” icons before a national TV audience through the HBO series by the same name.
Now, she’s turning that single-minded focus to protecting Newport’s cultural and historic identity, including its iconic landmarks, against the perceived threat of offshore wind.
The 25-year leader of the Preservation Society of Newport County is defending the decision to wage a court battle against the federal agency that approved offshore wind farms off Rhode Island’s coastline.
“I would think people would be lauding us for stepping forward,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “We are the only entity that has stepped forward and said, ‘the law is the law and we should follow the law.’ I can’t believe there isn’t general respect for that.”
The appeal filed the day before Thanksgiving in federal court in the District of Columbia alleges that Newport’s historic coastal landmarks will be ruined by the silhouettes of hundreds of skyscraper-size turbines off the coastline. The lawsuit, along with a nearly identical complaint filed separately by the Southeast Lighthouse Foundation of Block Island, argues that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) broke federal laws in approving wind farms without properly accounting for or mitigating against the harms to historic sites. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the U.S. Department of the Interior are also named as defendants.
“Despite acknowledging the industrialized wind farms’ adverse impacts, BOEM has succumbed to intense political pressure to conduct a sham consulting process with numerous skipped steps and foregone conclusions, shirking its responsibility to the public and allowing corporate developers to set the terms of permitting,” the complaint states.
“Given the speed with which BOEM is conducting offshore wind permitting, these failures, if left uncorrected, will set a lasting and deeply harmful precedent by gutting the protections that Congress intended for environmental and cultural resources…”
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to force BOEM to start over on its review of South Fork Wind Farm, a 12-turbine project under construction off Rhode Island waters that will provide power to New York. The Preservation Society wants BOEM to set aside the already signed approvals and agreements and halt construction on the wind farm, which began in February 2022, until a revised environmental review and decision are completed. It also seeks money for attorneys’ fees and “additional relief,” though the amount is not specified.
Blowback Swells
News of the lawsuits drew swift and sharp criticism from green energy advocates and union leaders, who denounced the litigation on social media and in a letter directly to Coxe in which they called on her to drop the complaint.
“To value the alleged impact to ‘viewsheds’ of mansions over the civilization-level threat faced by our region and world from the climate crises shows an extreme level of what has been described as ‘energy privilege,’” the Nov. 27 letter states.
The letter also appeals to Coxe’s environmental background, which includes six years as Massachusetts Secretary of Energy Affairs and 11 years executive director for Save the Bay.
“Any negative effects that you claim will be caused by the view of wind turbines from Aquidneck Island are exceedingly trivial compared to the economic benefits and urgent environmental need for this project,” the letter stated, likening the sight of wind turbines in the distance to “mere toothpicks on the horizon.”
We are the only entity that has stepped forward and said, ‘the law is the law and we should follow the law.’ I can’t believe there isn’t general respect for that.
– Preservation Society of Newport County CEO Trudy Coxe
BOEM as part of its review and granting of permits for federal wind farms must consider the visual impacts to historic sites, and offer mitigation measures to minimize any identified harms. In the case of South Fork, BOEM concluded the project might have negative impacts to five historic sites in Newport County – including The Breakers and the Marble House mansions – but that the 25 miles between the properties and the closest turbines would minimize any harms.
“While their size and siting may afford these historic properties some view toward the Lease Area, other existing buildings, vegetation, and elements of the built environment at each result in limited, screened views and increased presence of existing nighttime lighting,” the agency stated in its August 2021 report. “The ability of these historic properties to convey the significance of their architectural and social history would be unaltered by the Project.”
For another 10 historic properties on Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard, BOEM found more significant consequences were possible. A 45-page agreement between BOEM, the wind developer and state preservation officers in Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts lays out a series of protections for these properties, including funding for future studies and reports to assess how the wind farm, once finished, will affect them.
The agreement also provides for an estimated $1.3 million in funding for mitigation measures for the identified properties, put into an escrow account with total funding subject to change until specific plans are finalized.
Both the Preservation Society and Southeast Lighthouse Foundation are listed among the groups consulted by BOEM during the process, according to the memorandum. But Coxe insisted her organization was left out.
“We didn’t even get told about the project, we only learned about it through the grapevine,” she said. “That’s a pretty important oversight.”
Engagement Process Lacking
Even after getting wind of the project, Coxe alleged that “basic questions” over the combined impact of South Fork plus other wind farms planned for the area were never answered. The Preservation Society never asked for specific mitigation measures, either financial or other, because it needed more information first, she said.
Claire O’Brien, a spokesperson for Cultural Heritage Partners, the law firm that represented the Preservation Society and Southeast Lighthouse Foundation, reiterated Coxe’s complaints.
“BOEM determined the mitigation proposals using a top-down approach designed by paid consultants who didn’t consider community needs,” O’Brien said in an emailed response. “The mitigation proposals that BOEM approved fall far short of what’s needed to offset adverse effects as the National Historic Preservation Act requires.”
Jeffrey Emidy, executive director for the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, the state preservation agency, was part of the negotiation process and confirmed that the Preservation Society was involved too. Emidy was given a chance to offer suggested changes to a draft of the agreement before it was signed.
Asked if he was satisfied with the final mitigation package, Emidy struggled to answer.
“It’s hard to say because it’s so subjective,” he said. “We’re trying to put a dollar amount on the visual impact of things upwards of 13 miles away from Block Island. Are they going to be a quarter-inch tall on the horizon or a half-inch tall?”
He added, “I didn’t push the envelope.”
Coxe, on the other hand, had no qualms about going up against a federal agency, despite never having done so before.
“We don’t have a choice,” she said. “If we don’t follow what the law requires, then the law doesn’t mean anything for any energy project anywhere in the country.”
She also received unanimous support from the Preservation Society’s board of trustees to pursue legal action, she said. Several members of the board contacted by Rhode Island Current declined to comment.
Lissa Eng, a spokesperson for BOEM, declined to comment.
Coxe said the lawsuit was the only way to “get people to the table.” The complaint was filed days before the Nov. 24, 2023 deadline to appeal the South Fork approval, based on the two-year appeal window set out by BOEM.
We’re trying to put a dollar amount on the visual impact of things upwards of 13 miles away from Block Island. Are they going to be a quarter-inch tall on the horizon or a half-inch tall?
– Jeffrey Emidy, executive director for the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission
Meanwhile, BOEM granted its final permit to Revolution Wind, a separate, 65-turbine wind farm planned for federal waters just above South Fork, earlier this month. A third project mentioned in the lawsuit, Sunrise Wind Farm, remains under federal review.
All three projects are being co-developed by Danish wind giant Orsted A/S, which, according to O’Brien, “refused” to fix alleged errors in the permitting process for all three projects.
Meaghan Wims, a spokesperson for Orsted, said the company does not comment on pending litigation but noted the “years of reviews and scientific studies as well as public comment and other stakeholder engagement” on its projects.
Wims also highlighted the jobs and investments the company has committed to bringing to the region, including $40 million in port upgrades to Rhode Island and an estimated 1,000 construction jobs. Deepwater Wind installed the first offshore wind farm at Block Island, R.I., in 2016. More recent projects have run into financing concerns, even as East Coast states count on offshore wind to meet their clean energy goals. (John Moore/Getty Images)
‘Frankly, they need to get out of the way’
These economic benefits are central to project support from area union leaders, many of whom signed the letter demanding Coxe drop the lawsuit.
Patrick Crowley, a union organizer and co-chairman of Climate Jobs Rhode Island, described the battle between project supporters and detractors like the Preservation Society as a kind of class war.
“They’re using their wealth as a means to stop the advancement of alternative energy,” Crowley said. “This is not a collection of working class people who need these jobs and are impacted the most by climate change. Frankly, they need to get out of the way.”
Especially because Newport’s economy is dependent upon a working waterfront, water-related businesses, and, above all, surviving the rising sea levels caused by climate change, said Topher Hamblett, interim executive director for Save the Bay.
“Regardless of the issue of view scape, climate change is the biggest threat,” he said. “I don’t think any action by the Preservation Society changes that.”
A Giving Tuesday fundraising letter sent out by Coxe on behalf of the Preservation Society also drew backlash on social media, with opponents suggesting the private nonprofit did not need donations if it was paying for a lawsuit.
Coxe, however, said the Preservation Society has not spent any money on the appeal; the Cultural Heritage Society is representing them for free.
She also pushed back against criticism that the group was blocking environmental advancements.
“We support green energy,” Coxe said in a statement. “Green energy projects need not come at the unnecessary loss to our community’s irreplaceable character and sense of place.”
The Southeast Lighthouse Foundation could not be reached for comment.
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