Possible Wind-Energy Impact on Whales Flips the Environmentalist Narrative

As Democrats and environmentalists press forward on offshore-wind-power projects, others remain worried about the potential harms to marine life.

I s the environmental movement’s devotion to “saving the whales” coming into conflict with its support for offshore wind power?

The Biden administration has backed the expansion of offshore-wind-energy production by a factor of 714 by 2030. The plan, which enjoys support from the largest environmental groups, doesn’t mention its potentially negative environmental effects.

Nine whales have washed ashore in areas near offshore wind turbines, most recently on a beach in New Jersey in mid February. The East Coast has seen 22 stranded humpback whales since December. More than 180 of the animals have washed ashore dead between Maine and Virginia since offshore-wind-energy development began in 2016. And those that have washed ashore may only represent a small portion of those that have died.

A typical environmental story sees Republicans wanting something built and coming up against activists or politicians on the left who cite harms to the natural world to oppose it. But in this case, there are competing environmental claims at play, and local interests and politicians have come down on unexpected sides of the controversy.

Government bureaucrats at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) note in press conferences that a link between whale strandings and offshore-wind-energy production hasn’t yet been proven. Yet internal government presentations indicate that federal agencies are aware of these projects’ potential damage to whales. Wildlife experts in the U.K. have stated that a considerable increase in whales stranded on beaches in that country “could be a consequence of [offshore] wind farms.”

Others have noted a disparity in how this potential environmental harm is being treated. “In 2020 and again just last year, well-known environmental nongovernmental organizations like NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council] and CLF [Conservation Law Foundation] spoke of ‘profound concern’ for the cumulative effects of multiple offshore-wind-site surveys,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told National Review. “Yet when we bring up literally the same concerns in the public forum, we are maligned as spreading lies and critical misinformation.”

Elected officials in the area also believe that there is a rush for construction. The surge in beached whales prompted a group of twelve New Jersey mayors to write a letter to federal and state officials requesting an immediate moratorium on the construction of offshore-wind-power plants. “There have been no environmental impact studies, and we feel this project should be stopped until such studies have been completed,” said Long Beach Township mayor Joseph Mancini, one of the signatories.

But Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, promptly rejected calls to pause offshore-wind-turbine construction. The offshore-windmill industry has spent over $4 million on lobbying in New Jersey over the past decade. In 2021, Phil Murphy’s former chief policy adviser, Kathleen Frangione, became the head of government affairs and market strategy at Ørsted North America Inc., the firm that has spent the most on wind-power lobbying in New Jersey over this period. Last year, Murphy announced that Ørsted would take charge of New Jersey’s first offshore-wind project.

Both construction and ordinary operation noises from offshore wind turbines can travel great distances underwater, possibly harming whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals as well as fish that need to communicate with sound to find mates. NOAA guidelines show that high noise levels not only disrupt ocean creatures’ communications but may cause marine mammals such as whales and dolphins to go deaf. As some environmentalists have claimed, “A deaf whale is a dead whale.” And yet, the NOAA is reluctant to apply this logic to wind farms.

Starting in 1990, environmentalist groups such as the NRDC and Earthjustice have legally pressured the U.S. Navy, oil companies, and the commercial-shipping industry to be quieter, claiming that the noise from their operations was deafening and killing whales.

“If a whale or dolphin can’t hear, it can’t survive,” David Henkin, an attorney for Earthjustice, who legally blocked the U.S. Navy from using sonar in training near key whale habitats, said in a 2015 press statement. “We challenged the Navy’s plan because it would have unnecessarily harmed whales, dolphins, and endangered marine mammals, with the Navy itself estimating that more than 2,000 animals would be killed or permanently injured.”

Many operations that environmentalists have previously sued over were less noisy than the offshore wind turbines that environmentalists now advocate building. When such a turbine is installed, noise levels can reach up to 220 decibels, and the normal operations of offshore wind turbines reach up to 150 decibels. That’s louder than a rocket launch. Sounds above 150 decibels can burst a human eardrum; those above 185 decibels can kill a human being. Sound travels farther and becomes louder underwater. Thus, some argue that the turbines’ construction and operation noises could also potentially harm fish in addition to marine mammals such as whales.

Right now, the U.S. only has two operating offshore wind farms, off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, both of which are small and generate a combined 42 megawatts of energy. As part of the Biden administration’s green-energy push, 16,000 megawatts of offshore-wind-power capacity is already planned for the Atlantic Coast, with the legal rights to build turbines in areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey selling for almost $4.4 billion in February 2022. And construction for some has already begun.

But not everybody in these states is happy about it. In addition to local mayors, Representative Chris Smith (R., N.J.) has concerns. “The extreme push by the Biden administration and Governor Murphy to establish offshore wind turbines on an unprecedented scale raises serious questions about the efficacy and transparency of the environmental-review process,” Smith told National Review. “Local officials, commercial and recreation fisherman, citizens and environmentalists have serious outstanding questions. Instead, they have been met with a culture of denial that prefers to willfully look the other way instead of thoroughly investigating the unexplained whale deaths and addressing growing questions and concerns.”

Smith filed legislation requiring an immediate investigation into the environmental-approval process for offshore-wind-energy projects, as, in his view, Biden-administration officials have ignored calls for an investigation and a moratorium on offshore-wind-power development until the cause of the whale deaths has been conclusively determined.

“The recent surge in whale deaths is a major wake-up call. We deserve the truth,” Smith continued. “As part of a full-court press for answers, my legislation will investigate how much scrutiny has been and was brought to bear by federal agencies to review the environmental and maritime safety of this project — especially given its unprecedented size and scale — before it was green-lighted.”

There are currently four offshore-wind-energy construction projects in federal waters off the coast of New Jersey and one off the coast of New York. Many more will soon enter the construction phase.

Conservatives have been calling attention to the potential harms of offshore wind turbines for years. But such concerns gained steam in December, when Tucker Carlson Tonight launched a series of segments featuring geoscientist Rosie Moore and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who posited a link between the beaching death of a 35-foot-long humpback whale on Lido Beach, N.Y., and the development of offshore-wind-power projects. (Instead of addressing these concerns, however, media outlets such as Slate disparaged and dismissed Moore as a “part-time model,” ignoring the fact that she holds an advanced degree in geoscience and specializes in spatial technology and human–environmental interactions.)

“Save the whales” was the rallying cry of many environmentalists in the 1970s and 1980s. Today that commitment is being tested.