Editor's note: This story was updated on April 10 to add comments from Green Oceans.

A Newport County Superior Court judge last week ruled against the local citizens group Green Oceans, which had sued to prevent Revolution Wind from going forward with plans to install 65 turbines southeast of Rhode Island.

In a statement released Wednesday, Green Oceans said it will appeal the ruling.

The civil lawsuit was filed in hopes of overturning a May 2023 ruling by the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) that said Revolution Wind had met the requirements of the state’s Ocean Special Area Management Plan.

Green Oceans, a Little Compton-based group that opposes offshore wind projects, claimed that CRMC violated the Rhode Island Constitution, state regulations and its own responsibilities when it approved the project.

However, on Friday, April 5, Judge Richard Raspallo cited two main grounds for dismissing the suit. 

Raspallo said the appeal was filed on June 20, 2023 — well past the 30-deadline after CRMC’s vote on May 12. In addition, the judge ruled that Green Oceans was not a formal party or intervenor to the CRMC decision. Therefore, the group had no standing to sue or to receive an extension of the appeal filing deadline.

Revolution Wind received its final federal approval last fall. Construction on land is currently underway, and installation of the turbines is expected to start later this year.

“Today’s decision is a setback for the defense of our oceans and the marine ecosystems they sustain, and a betrayal of the residents of Rhode Island and our future generations,” said Bill Thompson, co-founder and vice president of Green Oceans. “We are disappointed that our efforts to protect Coxes Ledge have not been judicially reviewed on the merits of our case. We shall continue to hold the CRMC and the developers accountable for the economic and environmental impacts of offshore wind developments, and to ensure that they follow due process under the state’s environmental regulations. We will also continue to exercise our legal rights to protect our fellow citizens and the ocean we depend upon.”

In January, Green Oceans also filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, questioning the illegality of the permitting process for the Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind projects. According to Green Oceans, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated a total of eight federal environmental statutes and related regulations when approving both projects.

Green Oceans also opposes SouthCoast Wind’s proposal to construct an offshore wind energy generating facility in federal waters approximately 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 23 miles south of Nantucket within a federal lease area. The plan calls for connecting that facility via export cables through federal and state waters and eventually to an electrical substation at Brayton Point in Somerset in order to connect to the regional electric grid. 

To do that, the developers say they need to run transmission cables up the Sakonnet River, beneath Island Park Beach, up Boyds Lane and Anthony Road, then north before reentering waters in Mt. Hope Bay and making final landfall in Somerset.