On Tuesday night, the Elms mansion on Bellevue Avenue was aglow with white lights and alive with the sound of protests.
“Preserve our future! Not the mansions! Drop the lawsuit! Drop it now!,” they chanted. A few cars honked in solidarity as they passed.
Guests arrived in cars, passing through the gate on their way to a holiday party hosted by the Preservation Society of Newport County. They also had to make their way past demonstrators flanking each side of the gate.
Members of Climate Action Rhode Island used flashlights and headlamps to illuminate their protest signs on the dark sidewalk. About 50 people rallied to shout their support for offshore wind and protest the two lawsuits filed by the Preservation Society, appealing the approval of South Fork and Revolution Wind 1 offshore wind farms.
Camille Nixon, of Warren, echoed the sentiments of a chant.
“I’m just absolutely incensed that the Preservation Society of Newport, which should be preserving our futures, is voting to have a lawsuit against wind energy, which is incredibly irresponsible and not forward-thinking.”
Another protester, Angelica Hicks of Cranston, said she thinks the people at the holiday party inside should share her concerns and anxiety about the climate crisis.
“You know, I bet the partygoers are worried about it, too,” Hicks said. “I hope that some of the partygoers would like to come out and shout about it, too. Cuz we are starting to get to the point where no one can pretend it’s not happening.”
At issue are the South Fork and Revolution Wind 1 projects that call for hundreds of wind turbines 15 miles off the Rhode Island coast. The Preservation Society has filed two lawsuits challenging the permitting process for the projects, which it says did not consider their concerns about the visual impact the ninety-storey windmills will have on the views from their historic properties.
“Rhode Island is the Ocean State. Newport is the City by the Sea,” said Trudy Coxe, CEO of the Preservation Society. “The reason people come here is to go to First and Second Beach, to walk Cliff Walk, to drive Ocean Drive, to go to Brenton Point, to go to Sachuest, to do all the things that are on the water with really beautiful, beautiful views.”
The Preservation Society is also concerned the offshore wind projects will hurt the local tourism economy, and it’s challenging a permitting process it says is flawed. The lawsuits have outraged climate advocates. Members of Rhode Island environmental, scientific and labor communities recently signed an open letter to Coxe, asking her to drop the legal fight, writing, “We do so because the visual effects of tourists and Newport residents having to see offshore wind farms a dozen miles off the coast is simply not comparable to the impacts of the climate crisis.”
Robert Kenney signed the letter. He’s an emeritus marine research scientist at the University of Rhode Island, whose work involved the study of North Atlantic Right whales.
“And we’ve been trying to counter all the misinformation that’s been out there since the spring, blaming all these dead whales on the wind farms,” Kenney said. “And, in our opinion, it’s mostly NIMBY groups who don’t want anything out there on their ocean….A lot of it is driven by really rich people with ocean-front properties who want the ocean to themselves, essentially.”
Coxe pushed back on the characterization.
“It’s not about the Newport mansions’ view. It’s about the public’s view,” Coxe said. “It’s our view, all of us. We all have something to gain or lose.”
Trudy Coxe is a former head of the environmental group Save the Bay, and she says she believes in green energy, but emphasizes that federal regulators need to follow environmental and historic preservation laws.
Save the Bay is also an opponent of the two projects although they don’t support the Preservation Society’s lawsuits. Interim executive director Topher Hamblett says Save the Bay’s objections have to do with the potential impact on Cox Ledge, a valuable offshore habitat area.
“So our overall viewpoint on those projects were right project for the right reason, but in the wrong location,” Hamblett said.
Save the Bay was not part of the protest and is not a party to the lawsuits. But both Save the Bay and the Newport Preservation Society have one issue in common: Both groups are concerned about a permitting process in which they say federal regulators fail to do a rigorous environmental review.
The lawsuits were filed November 22. No court dates have been scheduled.
