Just in: A US Appeals Court has rejected key challenges to federal approvals for the Vineyard Wind project, lifting a legal shadow that has hung over America’s first large-scale offshore wind farm.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges filed by commercial fishing groups that had claimed the project would impact commercial fishing vessel safety and that construction would harm endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale.

The court found federal regulators adequately considered environmental and safety concerns related to the farm — and rejected concerns about an accident this summer in which a turbine blade blew to pieces above the Atlantic.

More specifically… the court determined agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) adequately considered the need for the wind farm — which would help power the northeast with clean energy — as well as alternatives.

Legally speaking… the court said BOEM did not violate environmental review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act.

And as to the right whale, the court held the fishing groups didn’t have standing to make those claims, saying fishing group interests in protecting waterways for its members “does not, ipso facto, encompass an individual member’s observational interests in the right whale or recreational interests in fishing and photography.”

The court had already rejected challenges in two other, very similar cases.

About that broken turbine blade… while the incident renewed local concerns that the wind farm is unsafe, the court determined letters it received about the situation were not relevant.

At any rate, federal regulators temporarily suspended installation of the towers in July but gave permission o resume in August.

Opinion here:ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/…