Democracy, for once, isn’t dying in darkness.
The Washington Post, an outlet all-in for net-zero energy, conceded recent whale deaths off the Atlantic Coast spell doom for the Biden administration’s offshore wind prospects.
“The humpback was one of nine large whales to get stranded over six weeks on or near beaches in the Northeast, not far from where developers of hundreds of offshore wind turbines are engaged in a flurry of preconstruction activity,” the publication noted.
The article added, “It’s the latest in a string of threats to a fledgling offshore wind industry that climate advocates say is central to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Surging costs from inflation and labor shortages have developers saying their projects may not be profitable. A raft of lawsuits and pending federal restrictions to protect sensitive wildlife could further add to costs.”
The Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council, two influential radical preservationist organizations, haven’t questioned its potential harmful effects on whales. Instead, they are quick to assign blame to vessel strikes and fishermen. But one unlikely skeptic is Center for Biological Diversity—a group that actively targets and works to displace conservationists like lobstermen, hunters, and anglers.
“I’m skeptical that either side is correct,” Brett Hartl, the government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Fox News. “I saw environmental groups saying wind definitely isn’t the cause of this and then others are saying wind is definitely the cause of this. These things take a lot of time – they’re going to do autopsies and necropsies to figure it out.”
Fourteen recent whale deaths–namely in New Jersey–have prompted calls to cease offshore wind exploration to determine if whale deaths stem from activities like underwater geotechnical testing.
A fact largely going unreported: As offshore wind leases expanded between 2015-2016, Incidental Take Authorizations (ITAs) were increasingly requested by renewable energy companies to offset their impact on marine mammals. For instance, 46 one-year ITAs have been authorized for wind sites. And more are expected to be approved. Talk about a coincidence.
David Wojick with the Committee for the Constructive Tomorrow attributes whale deaths to sonar blasting, writing, “There are lots of ways this sonar blasting might cause whales to die. Simply fleeing the incredible noise could cause ship strikes or fish gear entanglements, the two leading causes of whale deaths. Of the whales could be deafened, increasing their chances of being struck by a ship later on. Direct bleeding injury, like getting their ears damaged, is another known risk, possibly leading to death from infection. So there can be a big time difference between blasting and death.”
But NOAA Fisheries insists these projects have no impact, even dedicating a FAQ sheet to claiming there’s no link “between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys for offshore wind development.”
This dismissive tone, however, isn’t sitting well with lawmakers.
Congressman Andy Harris (R-MD) issued a strong rebuke of NOAA, stating, “…I am calling for an immediate moratorium on windmill construction and related underwater geotechnical testing until it is definitively proven that this construction and testing are not the cause of the repeated whale deaths.”
“NOAA has offered zero evidence that this construction, including geotechnical testing, is not the cause of death,” Harris added. “Even a vessel strike is still consistent with injury from seismic testing as that testing may interfere with the whale’s hearing and senses – some think causing long lasting damage. We need to take the time to gather proper scientific data, act in full transparency, and not rely upon FAQ platitudes for these projects, their construction, and the impact they may have upon our environment.”
Ben Laws from NOAA’s Office of Protect Resources insists these projects have no impact on whales. But according to Chesapeake Bay Magazine, he believes offshore wind can have deleterious effects on whales due to Level A and Level B harassment. The former applies to whale injuries, while the latter encompasses behavioral disturbances to whales —theoretically applying to disturbances from offshore wind.
The magazine continues, “Laws acknowledges that Atlantic coast offshore wind proposals that have been issued would allow Level B harassment to whales, with some limited instances of Level A harassment in the form of noise exposure. And, NOAA points out, there is also the potential for survey activity to injure whales because the extra boat traffic could increase the chance of vessel strikes.”
Laws’ comments, however, contrast his NOAA Fisheries colleague, Sean Hayes, who warned about offshore wind’s impact on endangered North Atlantic right whales. Hayes stressed in a May 13th memo: “Additional noise, vessel traffic and habitat modifications due to offshore wind development will likely cause added stress that could result in additional population consequences to a species that is already experiencing rapid decline.”
The White House mandated achieving 30 gigawatts of electricity generated from offshore wind by 2030. But deadlines to meet unrealistic goals pose a threat not only to the whales, but to energy security too. Wind, like solar, is severely unreliable and maintenance costs are expensive.
Why destroy the ocean to save the planet? It’s paradoxical. Worse, it undermines true conservation practices that undergird environmental stewardship.
NOAA Fisheries must treat whale mortality events with the seriousness they deserve and not conceal data to assuage Big Wind.
Let’s save the whales –and ourselves– from these problematic energy projects.
Whales die….. “We must halt all work to determine what is killing them.”
Children killed / maimed intentionally thru
Abortion
Gender mind fckery
Puberty blockers
Breast chopped off
Penis’s tucked
SILENCE / CRICKETS!!!!
Tells you everything you need to know about our current moral compass.
And yet we still look at ourselves in the mirror and ignore the ghoul staring back at us.
We do not have the manufacturing capability for the number of millstones we will need when the smoke clears.
Jesus….. Forgive us for we know exactly what we are doing.
Absolutely, but you left off one of the biggest threats to children. Experimental mRNA kill shots ( “vaccines” ) for a disease with virtually zero risk to children. How many ” died Suddenly” incidents must the public accept before the criminals are held accountable?
Firstly, we do NOT need to take carbon out of the atmosphere as it is not a problem. It’s plant food. Plants also produce oxygen. So it all balances out.
Secondly, most people are easily fooled and easily frightened and generally not very bright since thinking is no longer welcome in our idiocracy.
That covers it except for the fake war in Ukraine.
Humans are forced to take untested drugs that may or may not cripple them and shorten their lifespans if not kill them outright within a week.
Why should whales be treated better? They don’t even have votes to steal.
If any intelligent being were to assess and total every scrap of material and/or energy required in the locating, sourcing, mining, milling, refining, manufacturing, transporting from mine all the way to the installation site) of every item and aspect of what it will take to build these offshore windfarms (farms PRODUCE something, these wind turbines only convert) I m absolutely convinced we’d be net far ahead in both costs and “environmental load” if we expended some of that energy toward using and expanding existng known well-proven power sources.
I remember when I was a kid, picking up used nails from a tear-out or salvage project, and taking way too much time to carefully straighten them for re-use. I also was earning $2.50 per hour painting houses. For one hour of my work time, or $2.50 in my time, I coud buy ten pounds of brand new straight nails. False economy.
Now, when the settlers were movng west, nails were not wire but hand-cut sheet metal, when an old place was being bandonged they’d fire the buildnigs and pick up all the nails from the ashes with a magnet. This made sense time/dollar wise because the price of the nails was very dear. With modern wir nails produced by the tonne and availble for a song, such time is wasted.
this whole “greenenrgy” madness is like I was salvaging bent nails when I could have invested a s,all fraction of the time value in simply buying a keg of new ones.
We WILL have some energy from these sources, but at many times the $.KwH I am prsently paying for my house current. And that price has gone up five fold since this mad cancer began to metastasise some thirty years ago. I now know that “renewable energy” costs have not only raised my $/KwH at my home by direct cost add-ons (such production simply costs more) but there are also add-ons tu subsidise these more costely and ineffiecient means of power generation. We are being taken to the cleaners like a bunch of shell-game patsies.
When the fan blades are turning, the vibration is transferred to the supports. The supports set up a vibration. The harmonics is transferred to water, confusing the sonar of the whales.
Interesting how the military testing in the oceans were detrimental to sea life, but these windmills are okay.
Wind Turbines are not safe for Large Birds like Eagles, Condors, Hawks ,Falcons, Owls and Sea Life like Whales now where is those idiots from Greenpeace to oppose Wind Energy?
The Norks and the Iranians have openly said they want to hit the US with EMP’s, I am sure the Russians and the Chinese have also thought about it. Why not armor up our present electrical grid to withstand such an attack? the solar and wind scam will burn completely up with such an attack. But the banks electrical grids are probably already armored up to protect the greenies bank accounts. Can’t have them going broke like everybody, can we?
The best thing we can do is to resume work on the pipelines that Joe killed and stop green energy pork barrel projects. The Dems claim the moral high ground, but then they have offered us destruction packaged as virtue. Abortion is ok, killing whales is ok. Fracking and pipelines are evil. What is the sense in it all?
The Center for Biological Diversity has the most warped sense of ethics of any organization I’ve ever heard of. Bugs over people. Truly an evil bunch.
Many people are also ignorant concerning the facts about the wind turbines: they use diesel oil to operate them , and when the blades wear out, they cannot be recycled; they have to be buried.
They still support Wind Turbines and Solar Panels cluttering up the landscape and crowding out the Wildlife? in which case they are allowing idiotic ideology get in the way of their common sense
Many Environmentalists groups support Wind and Solar despite what it dose to Birds and Whales their simply allowing a ridiculous ideology to get in the way of Common sense
“ climate advocates say is central to reducing greenhouse gas emissions”
Interesting that the environmental movement changed from global warming to climate change because the globe didn’t warm but still refer to greenhouse gas.