Does Offshore Wind Development Threaten Whales?

What goes around comes around. "Save the whales" was a lefty battle cry decades ago. Now it has become a consideration that raises questions about offshore wind power. It's startling to see the followers of the "consensus" narrative contort themselves to explain away the problem of possibly driving an endangered species to extinction.
Time To Save the Right Whales From the Green Left?
ECONOMICS AND POLICY APRIL 5, 2024

By Craig Rucker
There was a time back in the 1960’s and 70’s when a cause like “Save the Whales” was the exclusive domain of the political left.

But as Bob Dylan might say, “the times they are a changing”.

Three major “conservative” organizations – the National Legal Policy Center, Heartland Institute, and my organization, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow – recently filed a major lawsuit in a Washington, D.C. federal court to save the Right Whale from facing potential oblivion.

Why aren’t the larger Green groups, unlike the grassroots ones, rallying around the efforts of these organizations to save Right whales? Good question. Perhaps it’s because the threat to the remaining 350 of them doesn’t come from Russian, Norwegian, or Japanese whaling vessels, as it did back in the 70’s. Rather, it is from so-called “Green energy” in the form of offshore wind. Right whales are being threatened by the Biden Administration’s fast-track plans to hurriedly place 30,000 MW of wind power generation off the Eastern coast, and doing so without the proper sort of environmental impact assessment they might otherwise perform for, say, offshore oil.

The collective decision by our outfits to take the issue of whale protection to Court came after two years of futile attempts to get the Biden Administration to listen. Offshore wind development threatens the nearly extinct North Atlantic Right Whale in various ways, and the government refuses to investigate. . . .

 

More about turbines vs whales.
Offshore Wind Cumulative Impact Issue Analysis
By David Wojick
Constraint in project impact should be the order of the day. . . .

 

The struggle continues.
Freedom Advocates are the Right Whale’s Best Hope
By David Wojick
Only we who value freedom are left to defend the whale. We are its best hope for survival. . . .

 

Apparently whales aren't woke enough for protection.
Feds say “damn the whales” in the Gulf of Maine
David Wojick
The draft Environmental Assessment simply ignores this enormous threat. . . .

 

Generating wind power by killing whales . . . .

The Offshore Wind Energy Scandal Is Even Worse Than You Think
Robert Bryce
These 11 charts show how America’s biggest NGOs are colluding with foreign corporations that want to industrialize our oceans with thousands of turbines that will hurt whales and ratepayers . . .

Two of Europe’s biggest energy companies are abandoning the SS Offshore Wind.

In May, Shell, the UK-based oil and gas giant (2023 revenue: $317 billion), announced that it was cutting staff from its offshore wind business because, according to Bloomberg, the company has decided to focus on markets that “deliver the most value for our investors and customers.” Bloomberg also reported that the staff cuts were made after the departures of top executives in the company’s offshore wind and renewable power businesses.

Last month, Murray Auchincloss, the CEO of oil and gas giant BP, imposed a “hiring freeze and paused new offshore wind projects.” According to Reuters, the new CEO is putting more “emphasis on oil and gas amid investor discontent over its energy transition strategy” and that BP (2023 revenue: $208 billion) was cutting investments in “big budget, low-carbon projects, particularly in offshore wind, that are not expected to generate cash for years.”

The moves by BP and Shell are only the latest examples of the troubles facing the offshore wind sector, which has been foundering on the shoals of higher interest rates, citizen opposition, and ballooning costs. Over the past year, numerous projects on the Eastern Seaboard, including Skipjack Wind in Maryland, Park City Wind in Connecticut, and South Coast Wind in Massachusetts, have been canceled due to bad economics. In all, according to data compiled by Ed O’Donnell, a nuclear engineer and a principal at New Jersey-based Whitestrand Consulting, about 14,700 megawatts of offshore wind capacity has been canceled. For comparison, about 15,500 megawatts of capacity is now in development, under construction, or operational.

Of course, those figures don’t jibe with the tsunami of hype about offshore wind energy that has appeared in major media outlets. But the hard reality is that America’s offshore wind sector is a subsidy-dependent industry that is dominated by foreign companies who are in bed with some of America’s biggest climate NGOs, including the NRDC (gross receipts: $555 million) and Sierra Club (Gross receipts: $184 million).

Those NGOs and others, including the National Wildlife Federation (gross receipts: $142 million) and Conservation Law Foundation (gross receipts: $17.5 million), are leading the most shameful environmental betrayal in modern American history. Rather than seek to protect marine mammals and stop the industrialization of our oceans, they are eagerly promoting the installation of hundreds of offshore wind platforms smack in the middle of the known habitat of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. . . .

 

How about this impact
http://politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/more-wind-power-boondoggle.620360/

Can't imagine if we had them off or coast right now and this happened, our beaches are PACKED with tourist and this is the time of the year all those tax dollars come rolling into local coffers and people are earning the bulk of their annual incomes.

 

A proposed action plan to save the whales:
Feds must rethink authorizing harassment of whales by offshore wind
David Wojick
The big question is whether unavoidable yet deadly offshore wind harassment is even legal under the MMPA and the Endangered Species Act. . . .

 

More evidence that offshore wind power kills whales.
Mounting Proof That Offshore Wind Hurts Whales
Kevin Killough, Just the News

 

Build an offshore turbine; kill a whale.
New Report Suggests “Whale Psychiatrist” Trump May be Right About Wind Farms and Whales
by Leslie Eastman
From Legal Insurrection

“They say the wind drives them mad. It’s a vibration issue because those structures are as tall as 50-story buildings… The wind is howling, objects are moving, creating vibrations and…

 

Cap offshore wind power to save the whales.
Capping marine mammal harassment constrains offshore wind
By David Wojick
The cap should also apply to all endangered and protected species not just whales. These authorization numbers can be much higher than those for whales. For example Dominion’s huge project…

 

Maybe converting (back) to fossil fuels can save the whales again.

 

Any science to share in this thread?

 

Please see #2 and #8.

 

Whale rescue may be on the way.
My 41 wind-threatens-whales articles track federal deception
By David Wojick
A New Year's retrospective. Many of these 41 CFACT articles were sent to key NOAA whale protection people when published over a period of 2.5 years. All have been carefully ignored, an ongoing deception. Trump has promised action. . . .

 

So no, no science

 

From #8:
Apostolos Gerasoulis, a Rutgers professor emeritus of computer science, has gathered evidence the media, federal agencies and environmental groups ignore. Gerasoulis built a software system to identify connections between dead whales and offshore wind survey vessels.

“Absolutely, 100%, offshore wind kills whales,” the scientist told the Daily Mail.

The survey vessels use loud blasts of sonar sound to map the seabed floor in preparation for the installation of high-voltage cables and monopiles, which are hundreds of feet tall with an over 30-foot diameter. The monopiles are pounded into the seabed with specialized ships.

NOAA data, according to the Daily Mail, shows that humpback whale deaths in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island waters went from an average of two per year before 2016, when wind developers’ sonar vessels began mapping the seabed. Then deaths went to an average of 10 in the years since the activity began. Last year, 20 whales were found dead in the region.

Gerasoulis used his software system — named after a 41-foot humpback whale, Luna, who was found in Long Island, New York in 2023 — to map the traffic patterns of sonar vessels and the location of dead humpback whales. The statistical tests on the Luna system, according to the Daily Mail, show that there’s a statistically significant connection between the two.

 

Not “science” but opinion

Esp if the “Daily Fail” is involved

 

You have no argument beyond your prejudice. Meanwhile:
"Gerasoulis built a software system to identify connections between dead whales and offshore wind survey vessels."

 

No I judging the so called “science” by using a universal criteria

 

Again you demonstrate a lack of understanding of the scientific method.

 

Actually, you're attacking science.
"Apostolos Gerasoulis, a Rutgers professor emeritus of computer science, has gathered evidence the media, federal agencies and environmental groups ignore. Gerasoulis built a software system to identify connections between dead whales and offshore wind survey vessels."

 

Yes. Form hypothesis and gather evidence. If any evidence contradicts the hypothesis the hypothesis is not true. The work of science is focused on testing hypotheses.

 

And what's your "universal criteria"?

 

Well your blog dribbler got three likes. Do you expect to be taken seriously?

 

What science? Where is the published paper?