News this morning that a Federal District Court Judge in Massachusetts has granted Vineyard Wind's motion to intervene in the two lawsuits brought by NIMBYs to block the Vineyard Wind project well off the coast of Nantucket.

The Judge determined that ten years of effort and $300 million spent successfully permitting the project, not to mention the billions of dollars in contracts at stake, were collectively a sufficient "interest" to allow Vineyard Wind to participate in the lawsuit seeking to upend the result of all off that effort by Vineyard Wind and the many Governmental authorities involved.

Non-lawyers may be surprised to learn that there was even a question as to whether Vineyard Wind would be allowed to participate in a lawsuit in which it has so much at stake.  Now that question has been answered and the NIMBYs and their lawyers will need to contend with lawyers for both the Federal Government and Vineyard Wind.  Sadly that still doesn't mean that what is necessary to implement this and other critically important clean energy projects won't take longer and cost more than should be necessary.

"Allco argued Vineyard Wind wouldn’t be harmed because the government could reissue approval after a more robust environmental review. The court disagreed, saying that a ruling in their favor would delay the project and “inject uncertainty into the viability of the project entirely.”