Massachusetts political contributions from Nantucket wind farm developer scrutinized

As Nantucket continues to reel from the Vineyard Wind turbine blade failure, critics are raising concerns around how the project’s parent company, Avangrid, has donated thousands of dollars in campaign money to state elected officials.

A Herald analysis found that employees who list Avangrid as their employer have made 217 donations totaling $57,677 to dozens of state and local campaigns since March 2018, two months before the Baker administration selected a Vineyard Wind bid for contract negotiation.

Notable figures include project supporters Gov. Maura Healey receiving 38 donations totaling $16,425 since 2018, and state Sen. Julian Cyr, a Democrat whose district represents the Cape and Islands, collecting 17 contributions for $3,036 since 2021, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

While the donations represent minuscule portions of Healey and Cyr’s cumulative campaign funds, sharply less than 1%, respectively, critics argue the electeds are putting their interests with Avangrid ahead of their constituents.

Vineyard Wind, a venture of Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, continues to clean up debris — a mix of foam and fiberglass pieces of various sizes — on Nantucket and the surrounding area in the aftermath of the turbine blade failure.

“Campaign donations have bought their support for a project that makes very little sense at this point,” said Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for watchdog Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. “Elected officials should think objectively on policy decisions, but in this case, their judgment is getting blinded by the campaign donations they are receiving.”

The Healey campaign declined to comment.

The $3,036 that Avangrid employees have donated to Cyr since 2021 counts for 0.4% of the $688,518 in contributions he’s received in that time, the senator told the Herald.

Cyr highlighted how Massachusetts campaign finance law limits the maximum contribution a candidate can receive per person per calendar year to $1,000.

“By capping contributions, we ensure that the voice of every voter matters, rather than allowing those with deep pockets to dominate the political landscape,” the senator said in a statement Saturday. “This promotes fairness, transparency, and trust in our elections, ensuring that our representative democracy is truly for the people, not for those who can spend the most.”

Christopher Lauzon, a Barnstable resident and Republican candidate running for Cyr’s seat, called the Vineyard Wind situation “one of the biggest disasters to hit the Cape and Islands since Hurricane Bob.”

“It’s having devastating environmental and economic impacts,” Lauzon said of the Vineyard Wind blade failure in an interview with the Herald on Friday.

“Senator Cyr has been completely MIA on this issue,” the candidate continued, adding how he visited Nantucket last weekend to speak with island residents. “They are not happy. They feel like they’re being ignored.”

An analysis of Cyr’s social media activity since the blade broke apart on July 13 showed that the senator has not made any posts relative to what many Nantucket officials and residents are calling a crisis.

Healey also hasn’t made any social media posts about her response.

In a July 16 post on X, Cyr included a link to his monthly newsletter. In it, he highlighted a trip he made with Healey to the Vineyard Wind warehouse facility on June 6 and a celebration of “Global Wind Day” at Craigville Beach in Barnstable a week later.

“Vineyard Wind has demonstrated a commitment to the Island,” Cyr wrote in the newsletter. “I am proud to have played my part in working to forge the partnership between Islanders and the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind installation, and I’m excited to see this effort create a whole host of good in our community.

Healey, during her trip with Cyr, remarked, “To all of the workers, contractors, the people who financed and so many others, thank you for bringing this home. We were serious when we said we were going to make a big bet on wind. It’s where we need to go.”

Lauzon is taking exception to how Cyr has collected five contributions totaling $1,300 from his former chief of staff, Patrick Johnson, who currently serves as Avangrid’s director of public affairs.

Johnson donated five other gifts to Cyr for $1,101.38 under prior employment.

“When you get into the thousands of dollars it does add up. That’s significant,” Lauzon said. “Honestly, it presents a conflict.”

Cape Cod Concerned Citizens highlighted how it “holds the strong opinion that the pattern of campaign contributions that is publicly available for all to see reveals a giant grift that is poisonous to the democratic process and silences the voices of Cape Cod constituents.”

Cyr stood firm with how he makes his “decisions and votes based on what I believe is best for Cape Codders and Islanders, not for any political contributors.”

“I have been all in on clean energy, including offshore wind, but I am clear-eyed that can only happen if we get it right,” Cyr told the Herald. “That means doing right by the local people and communities who host these projects. Anything else is unacceptable.”

During his employment with Avangrid, Johnson has contributed to roughly 25 other campaigns including $500 to Healey, $825 to Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and $900 to Rep. Jeffrey Roy, the House chair of the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee.

“Avangrid always supports the ability of its employees to exercise their rights and participate in the political process,” company spokesperson Leo Rosales told the Herald in a statement Sunday, “including supporting public officials on important issues like clean energy and climate policy.”

GE Vernova, the designer, manufacturer and installer of the turbines, has pointed to a “manufacturing deviation” and not an engineering design flaw in the failure of its wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket. An initial third-party environmental analysis of the disaster has found the debris from the 351-foot blade to be “inert, non-soluble, stable and non-toxic.”

Vineyard Wind is prohibited from generating electricity from any of its turbines and building any additional towers, nacelle and blades, under a federal order.

The company is permitted to “install inter-array cables and conduct surveys outside of the damaged turbine’s safety exclusion zone,” the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in a Friday release.

Nantucket officials, in a Friday update, highlighted how they met with the state for the first time on Thursday to discuss the state’s “monitoring and response efforts.”

The Biden administration restarted permitting for Vineyard Wind 1, the subject of a federal appeal, in February 2021, just a month after the president took office. GE Vernova has installed 24 turbines to date.

Vineyard Wind 1 is planned to grow to 62 turbines that are expected to have the capacity to generate 806 megawatts, enough electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses across the state, according to state officials.

Avangrid has either begun construction on or is in review of other wind farm projects in the Nantucket Sound, which Barnstable residents are fighting against.

“The offshore wind industry is critical to our ability to combat climate change and produce clean, affordable energy,” a spokesperson for the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs told the Herald, “and the Healey-Driscoll Administration is committed to delivering these benefits to our residents.”