PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Unsubstantiated claims that offshore wind threatens whales have emerged as a flashpoint in the fight over the future of renewable energy.
In recent months, conservatives including former President Donald Trump have claimed that the construction of offshore wind turbines is killing giant animals.
Scientists say there is no reliable evidence linking offshore wind farms to whale deaths. But that hasn’t stopped conservative groups and “not in my backyard” anti-development groups from making connections.
The Associated Press separates fact from fiction when it comes to whales and wind energy as the rare North Atlantic right whale’s migration season begins:
WHERE ARE THE US OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS?
To date, two commercial offshore wind farms are under construction in the United States. Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the company Eversource are building South Fork Wind, located 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. Ørsted announced on December 7 that the first of 12 turbines here are now sending electricity to the grid. Vineyard Wind is building a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Massachusetts. Both plan to open early next year, and other large offshore wind projects are also getting permits.
There are also two pilot projects: five turbines in Rhode Island and two turbines in Virginia. The Biden administration aims to provide offshore wind energy to 10 million homes by 2030, a key part of its climate goals.
Lawsuits filed by community groups have delayed Ørsted’s two major offshore wind projects in New Jersey, and the company recently announced it was canceling those projects. David Hardy, Ørsted’s group vice president and Americas CEO, said this decision was based on economic sustainability and had nothing to do with opposition to offshore wind in New Jersey.
DOES US WIND FARM CAUSE WHALE DEATHS?
Despite politically motivated statements suggesting a connection, there is no evidence that limited wind farm construction on the Atlantic Coast has directly resulted in whale deaths, experts say.
Rumors began to circulate after 2016, when an unusual number of whales were found dead or stranded off the coast of New England; It’s a trend that precedes major offshore wind farm construction starting this year.
“When whales were stranded in places like New Jersey in the Northeast earlier this year, the reality is that it wasn’t caused by offshore wind,” said Aaron Rice, a marine biologist at Cornell University.
Responding to questions about whale strandings earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that nearly 40 percent of recovered whale carcasses showed evidence of death from entanglement in fishing gear or ship strike. Others could not be attributed to a specific cause.
In Europe, where offshore wind has been developed for more than three decades, national organizations have also failed to find a causal link between wind farms and whale deaths.
Meanwhile, U.S. scientists are collecting data near offshore wind farms to monitor possible non-lethal impacts, such as altered behavior or changes in migration routes. This research is still in the preliminary stages, said Doug Nowacek, a marine biologist at Duke University who helped track whales off the coast of Massachusetts this summer as part of a five-year, federally funded study.
WHAT REAL DANGERS DO WHALES FACE?
While the exact reasons for the East Coast whales’ recent extinction are mostly unknown, whales face threats from human activities.
The biggest threats, according to scientists and federal officials, are collisions during transportation and entanglement in fishing gear. They say underwater noise pollution is another concern.
Some whale conservation advocates have called the push for offshore wind energy a distraction from real problems. “This appears to be being used opportunistically by anti-wind interests,” said Gib Brogan, fisheries campaign director at environmental group Oceana.
Humpback whales have been dying at an advanced rate since 2016; The federal government calls this an “unusual death event.” The much rarer North Atlantic right whale, of which there are fewer than 360 in the world, is also experiencing an unusual mortality event.
NOAA reports that 83 whales have died off the East Coast since December 1, 2022. About half were humpback whales from Massachusetts to North Carolina, and two were critically endangered right whales from North Carolina and Virginia.
WHAT IS BEING DONE TO PROTECT WHALES NEAR THE WIND FARM?
Federal law places limits on human-induced sound underwater for sustained noise and short bursts.
Marine construction projects can reduce the potential impact on marine mammals, including pausing construction during migration seasons, using “bubble curtains” to block sound from pile driving, and placing trained observers with binoculars on ships to look for marine mammals.
Offshore wind developers are taking steps required by regulators, but they are also voluntarily taking measures to ensure marine mammals are not harmed. Ørsted will not be piling between 1 December and 30 April, when whales are on the move. It uses additional surveillance tools, surrounds monopiles for turbines with bubble curtains, and performs underwater acoustic monitoring.
Equinor plans to use acoustic monitoring and infrared cameras to detect whales as it begins developing two leases off Long Island with partner bp. The company said it would limit pile driving to months when right whales are least likely to be found.
WHY DO SOME PEOPLE CLAIM THAT WIND PLANTS ARE CAUSING WHALES DEATH?
One of the strongest opponents of offshore wind is the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the foundation’s center for energy, climate and environment, wrote in November that Ørsted’s scrapped New Jersey wind project was “outrageous.” ” and a threat to wildlife.
“Whales and birds … would benefit if the offshore wind left the Garden State,” Furchtgott-Roth wrote.
Ørsted’s Hardy said claims that wind farms were killing whales were “not scientific” but were “largely politically motivated misinformation”.
The Heartland Institute, another conservative public policy group, also pushed back on offshore wind projects. H. Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the institute, said wind projects are subject to unfairly lax regulatory restrictions compared to fossil fuel projects.
“We think this should be held to the same standard as any oil and gas project,” Burnett said.
Smaller anti-wind groups have also organized to oppose projects in coastal communities that they say jeopardize waterscapes, coastal industries, and recreation.
WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF MISINFORMATION?
Opponents of offshore wind are trying to stop the projects using unsupported claims of harming whales, with some of the loudest opposition concentrated in New Jersey.
Misinformation could cause concern in coastal communities where developers must build coastal infrastructure to operate the wind farm.
Republican politicians took opposition from coastal towns and community groups seriously. GOP congressmen from New Jersey, Maryland and Arizona prompted the U.S. Government Accountability Office to open an investigation into the offshore wind industry’s impacts on commercial fishing and marine life and requested a moratorium on the projects.
New Jersey’s Democrat-controlled Legislature remains resolutely behind the industry.
ARE WHALES AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE?
One reason why whale advocates are turning to renewable energy is that they say climate change is harming animals, and relying less on fossil fuels will help solve that problem.
Scientists say global warming is causing tiny crustaceans, the right whale’s preferred food, to move as waters warm.
This means whales are leaving protected areas of the ocean to search for food, leaving them vulnerable to ship attacks and entanglements. Large whales play a vital role in the ecosystem by storing carbon; so some scientists say they are also part of the solution to climate change.
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