Thoughts and Prayers to All Who are Suffering From Closed Beaches on Nantucket Due to an Offshore Wind Turbine Exploding

John Moore. Getty Images.

This would be some real inside baseball material for people who haven't lived in Massachusetts for the last 25 years or so. But for the longest time there was a huge power (no pun intended) struggle between politicians, energy companies, environmental groups, and the swells who live along the coast on the Cape and the Islands over a proposed wind farm off Martha's Vineyard. 

The battle lines were drawn about where you'd expect. Some wanted an offshore wind farm to create clean, renewable energy. Others felt it would drive energy prices up. Some complained the blades would kill birds, as if the idea of murdering seagulls was anything other a huge selling point. But the most powerful and vocal lobby were the rich, connected people who felt their waterviews would be negatively impacted. Even far left political families like the Kennedys and Kerrys made this point, if somewhat indirectly, so they could keep their bona fides with the Green Energy crowd. 

Well the pro-windmill interests eventually won, and construction began. And it didn't take long for disaster to strike. In a way far worse than just some decapitated Rats with Wings:

A turbine that went up in February suffered some sort of catastrophic failure. Resulting in the beaches of Nantucket shutting down in the middle of July. During a heatwave, no less:

Source -  Debris from a broken Vineyard Wind turbine blade washed up all over Nantucket's south shore Tuesday morning, prompting the offshore energy company to mount a cleanup effort and the federal government to shut down the wind farm "until further notice."

Residents began reporting pieces of green and white foam, along with larger pieces of what appears to fiberglass, along southern Nantucket beaches at daybreak, stretching from Madaket out to Nobadeer. …

"The water is closed to swimming on all south shore beaches, due to large floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards," Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey said. "You can walk on the beaches, however we strongly recommend you wear footwear due to sharp, fiberglass shards and debris on the beaches."

Vineyard Wind disclosed Monday that one of its turbine blades suffered damage Saturday during an "offshore incident." The exact nature of the incident is not yet known, but there were no injuries to any Vineyard Wind personnel or other mariners.

"The blade experienced a breakage approximately 20 meters out from the root," according to company spokesman Craig Gilvarg. "The turbine was in its commissioning phase and was still undergoing testing. Nearly the entirety of the blade remains affixed to the turbine and has not fallen into the water."

One can't help but point out the irony here. How the whole motivation behind this project was to keep the environment clean and safe. And yet it's caused an ecological disaster that is a threat to humans and sea life both. Meanwhile the smartest scientific minds are all in agreement that nuclear energy is the cleanest, safest energy source we have, but plants are getting shut down all over the world by these same interests. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that. 

But that discussion is for another time. The here and now is all about caring for the victims in this calamity. Who are not happy that it took Vineyard Wind from Saturday until late Monday to alert anyone:

Or that their response is to send two four-person teams to the island:

Not to mention the false reports that were spread in the aftermath:

It's sad. Very, very sad. I'm not exaggerating when I say fiberglass is the worst substance you can deal with. If you've ever gotten stabbed by shards of that stuff, from a broken golf club, fishing rod, or one of those reflector posts you put at the edge of your lawn, no further explanation is necessary. I'd rather have hot needles embedded in my skin than those one of those savage little fibers.

And if we had any sort of a functioning government still running this country, we'd have a convoy of aid boats steaming toward Nantucket right now. With a carrier battle group escorting them, just to be on the safe side. Furthermore, we'd have the corrupt, incompetent grifters who built these shoddy boondoggles in handcuffs being dragged into the halls of justice. 

I say this as someone who cares deeply about the good, decent, hardworking people of Nantucket. And not just as someone whose pristine beach is open, as usual:

Stay safe, islanders. We're with you in spirit.