A whale of an issue

The quest for offshore wind is killing whales. But they're expendable now.

They would be shiny objects on the horizon, but imagine massive wind turbines in this photo. I was standing on Rehoboth Beach looking south toward Maryland on a lovely fall day back in 2020.

I’m dialing back from the political races with this one.

Instead, I’m promoting this from a future odds and ends because a recent article from the Caesar Rodney Institute’s Center for Energy & Environmental Policy and its indefatigable David Stevenson got me to thinking and remembering.

Stevenson concludes:

Sufficient scientific evidence proves offshore wind survey work and construction are killing whales. The first projects with massive new turbines never used before are moving into operation. Acoustic data is being accumulated and likely will show that safe operational noise levels are being exceeded daily.

The article itself, called Offshore Wind is Killing Whales, is compelling enough, but there is a line in it which pointed out some serious hypocrisy among those who inhabit our federal government:

The NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) issues Letters of Authorization for Incidental Take of whales and other marine animals for offshore wind construction projects.

As I would read it, and perhaps as any other person of sound mind would read it, they’re expecting whale deaths. It’s just collateral damage from the quest to give us clean, green energy - never mind its capricious nature and high cost - so most environmental groups are fine with the tradeoff. Who sees a right whale anyway? Isn’t that what aquariums are for?

Apparently the noise from the seismic testing and pile driving to build these turbines is just fine. But then I remembered a time just a few short years ago when Radical Green was dead set against the noise from the seismic testing for oil and gas exploration. In fact, Greenpeace is still against it, only updating its post to reflect the change in administration to make it evergreen. Something tells me that the NMFS would be much less willing to hand out a Letter of Authorization to Exxon, BP, or whoever wants to see whether the Atlantic Ocean has marketable quantities of oil or natural gas under it like the Gulf of Mexico does.

And that’s fine as long as they remain consistent: if you’re not going to allow Big Oil to explore out there, then Big Wind shouldn’t be mucking things up either. Remember, while oil is transported from platform to land via a pipeline that has to be embedded beneath the ocean floor, the same is true for offshore wind as its generator needs a connection to the main power grid. (This is the controversy over using 3R’s Beach and connecting to the Indian River power plant here in Delaware for electricity ostensibly bound for Maryland. They knew there was no way Ocean City would allow such a thing, so stick it in a state park up in Delaware then run it under a well-used recreational waterway. I guess our beach and boating is less important.)

It’s funny how the Left now considers our side hypocrites for caring about an endangered species when it comes to “clean” offshore wind. That’s rich considering how much progress their lawfare and Astroturf dollars to buy the rent-a-protestor have thwarted over the years.

Life is full of tradeoffs and compromises. Here’s an idea: I’ll stop worrying about oil exploration offshore if you stop fretting about building these unreliable windmills that close beaches. If your goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, you should be like my Substack cohort

Robert Bryce

(who is on to this offshore wind scam, too) and advocate for “N2N” - natural gas as a transition to nuclear power.

But if your goal is to be able to control the MAGA proles in flyover country by keeping them impoverished with rolling blackouts, just keep right on going down the same path. Right whales would be the least of the collateral damage.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.