We have to maintain a position of neutrality until a proposal is in front of us and then we can address the details of it, and maybe we weigh in against it at that time. But now is premature.”

Leonard Katzman, Portsmouth Town Council

PORTSMOUTH — With the majority of members saying it’s premature to take an official stance at this time, the Town Council Monday declined to support a Little Compton resolution urging SouthCoast Wind to explore a cable path over land in Westport, rather than through the Sakonnet River.

SouthCoast Wind, formerly Mayflower Wind, has an application before the R.I. Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) to connect offshore wind turbines located 30 miles south of Nantucket to the regional transmission system at Brayton Point in Somerset. To do that, the developer is proposing to run transmission cables up the Sakonnet River, beneath Island Park Beach, up Boyds Lane and Anthony Road, under the Montaup Country Club before reentering waters in Mt. Hope Bay and making final landfall in Somerset. The council is one of many groups being asked to submit an advisory opinion to the EFSB, which will ultimately decide whether the project goes forward.

In February, the Little Compton Town Council approved a resolution supporting the “exploration of a cable path alongside State Route 88 in Westport, Massachusetts, which would carry none of the attendant risks of the current plan, and traverses an area relatively free of private residences or businesses.”

The resolution states the Sakonnet River is home to a wide variety of fin fish and shellfish and is used year-round for commercial and recreational fishing and boating. “The installation in the river of high power electrical transmission cables from off-shore wind turbines would subject its ecosystems to unpredictable risks and damage,” stated the resolution, which also said Massachusetts would be the primary beneficiary of the revenue produced by the generated electricity, and that “an alternative overland path with few attendant drawbacks has not been sufficiently explored.”

Council member David Gleason, the only person on the panel who has come out publicly against SouthCoast’s Sakonnet River route, put the item on Monday’s agenda for a vote to either support or not support the Little Compton resolution. 

After some debate, Gleason moved to support the resolution. There was no second, however, so the motion died.

Before the motion was made, Council President Kevin Aguiar said the matter shouldn’t even be discussed in open session because SouthCoast had already been a topic during previous executive sessions. 

“In my opinion, it should not be discussed in open session until the discussions in executive session come to a conclusion. We’ve stated, whatever happens in executive session … will be discussed in a public meeting, in open session. I think at this point, it’s premature to discuss this in open session,” he said.

Aguiar also reiterated a point he has made during previous meetings: “We’ve stated this time and again, and we’ve stated this at the (May 25) workshop: There is no formal proposal from SouthCoast Wind.” 

Council member J. Mark Ryan said there’s also a practical reason for the council to decline to take an official stance on the route, one way or the other, at this time.

“At some point in the future, we may be in a position to be negotiating with SouthCoast Wind on their proposals,” Ryan said. “If we announce ahead of time that we are restricting what they can propose to us, that may put us in an awkward position when we’re actually supposed to be getting the best deal for the town we can get.”

He added that it’s not the council’s job to represent Little Compton’s interests. “It’s to represent the Town of Portsmouth. We have not even entered into any negotiations with SouthCoast Wind because they haven’t proposed anything to us. We do not want to weigh in on this topic until we know what they’re proposing,” Ryan said.

Strong feelings ‘in both directions’

After some members of the audience opposed to SouthCoast’s proposal started shouting out comments, Ryan addressed them directly. 

“I will tell you there are many people who have very strong feelings about this in both directions” he said. “People in this room may have their own opinions, but I’ve talked to a number of other people who are residents of Portsmouth who have different opinions about the desirability of wind power and the necessity to get it implemented in some fashion. But as of right now, there is no proposal from SouthCoast, there is no negotiation going on, and to sort of announce conditions and restrictions on what we think they can and cannot propose before they’ve even proposed it, is premature and may limit our ability to negotiate with them when they actually begin proposing things.”

Council member Leonard Katzman agreed with Ryan. He said the council could adopt a resolution to tell SouthCoast Wind “to jump in a river,” and the EFSB could approve the project anyway.

“We have to maintain a position of neutrality until a proposal is in front of us and then we can address the details of it, and maybe we weigh in against it at that time. But now is premature,” Katzman said.

Gleason responded that the Little Compton resolution is merely asking SouthCoast Wind to look at over-land routes, which Save The Bay has also requested. “I don’t think we’re telling SouthCoast Wind, ‘We’re done with you.’ We’re saying, ‘Hey, have you looked anywhere else?’ And maybe it’s $50 million more to do that, and that’s the reason why they’re coming down the river,” he said.

Ryan and council member Keith Hamilton also remarked that SouthCoast has, in fact, explored other routes and has discussed them multiple times. “Us asking them to do it again is really not going to do anything — let’s call a spade a spade — but possibly damage any negotiating position that we might have,” Hamilton said.

Residents speak

After Aguiar instructed those in the audience that any public comment needed to stick to the agenda item — the Little Compton resolution — three residents spoke. 

Ralph Craft, a small business owner and fisherman, noted the town has received $100,000 from SouthCoast so staff could research the proposal. “I have asked for the reports on what has happened from way back when when it was Mayflower on the environmental studies, and last month they still couldn’t give me any environmental studies. So I hope that that money you’re doing is being spent on environmental studies,” said Craft, before Town Solicitor Kevin Gavin warned the discussion had “already strayed way off the agenda item.”

Another resident, Joe Forgione, said SouthCoast believes the Portsmouth Town Council is its biggest ally in getting the cables up the river. He also called Ryan’s and Hamilton’s comments that SouthCoast has explored other routes “patently incorrect … They have not seriously evaluated any other alternative,” a comment that Hamilton denied.

Carol Mello said she supported Little Compton’s resolution and read a passage from a report by the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM), which stated that to reduce the offshore export cable’s impact on fisheries, “BOEM developed onshore cable route options that would avoid placing the offshore export cable in the Sakonnet River.”

“This is so clear that this is a bad idea,” Mello said.

Aguiar said the public will have plenty of future opportunities to comment on the application, which is still in the early stages.

“There are multiple agencies that are experts on what happens to the Sakonnet River — far more informed and educated than the Town Council,” he said. “It’s up to those agencies as well to do their due diligence. I’m sure there are public comment periods and opportunities for you to voice your concerns at those hearings as well. This is a long process.”