This Earth Day, as most of the media goes wild on climate alarmist propaganda, we here at PJ Media are bringing you a dose of sobering reality instead: “Green” wind turbines are terrible for the ocean and they can cripple the fishing industry in Maine.
A group of more than a dozen fisher organizations is sounding the alarm on a massive area of ocean about two times the size of Rhode Island, reserved for erecting floating wide turbines. Such turbines are always expensive, toxic, unreliable, and inefficient, but in this case the turbines will be disastrous for the Maine fishing industry and do potentially permanent damage to marine species. During a media call Monday, fisherman Jason Joyce and Roda Fisheries executive director Annie Hawkins explained why the wind turbine craze in government and business presents practically no benefit aside from enriching oligarchs.
The coalition of organizations explained, “The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) final designation of an enormous Wind Energy Area (WEA) for the Gulf of Maine is the culmination of a rushed development process that is poorly informed on economic, scientific, environmental and cultural issues of paramount importance.” Joyce and Hawkins expounded in more detail.
The WEA could produce potentially around 32 gigawatts of capacity, or around 3200 turbines, according to Joyce. He said that he is perpetually told, in justification, that the Gulf of Maine is warming at an alarming rate and climate action is needed. This seems improbable, since the world is actually experiencing a cooling trend, alleged atmospheric warming would reportedly warm less than the top inch of ocean water, and Maine was experiencing extreme cold as recently as early last year. But Biden administration financial incentives through the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act have made businesses careless of reality in pursuing wind turbines.
But Joyce pointed out an even bigger irony about the WEA. Once the turbines are set up there, they have what he called “cooling stations” to cool down the heating turbines. A conservative estimate of the amount of heated water associated with the cooling stations in the projected WEA would be “29 billion gallons of [90 degree] water a year” if the WEA ended up producing only 15 GW. So, in order allegedly to cool down the Gulf of Maine (which has an average temperature of between 42 degrees and 61 degrees Farenheit during different seasons), climate alarmists plan a massive wind turbine area bigger than Rhode Island to pump up to 29 billion gallons of 90 degree water in the gulf! How does that make sense?
Joyce also explained, “The area that they’re calling the WEA…it’s going to affect every marine species that has any movement at all. You know, it probably won’t affect barnacles, but that’s about the only thing that it won’t affect.” He noted marine life, including shellfish and seals, move very rapidly over a large area. For instance, a lobster he once caught and released was tracked by its tag as going about 50 miles in around 2 days. Yet the WEA would take up some 2 million acres of ocean, essentially completely destroying that area for the purposes of marine migration! That will end up hurting not only the marine life but also, therefore, the fishing industry.
Another issue with the turbines is radar. Not only do the turbines contribute to increased whale deaths by the sonar blasting used in their construction, but the windmills themselves can interfere with the radar boats used to navigate at night or in bad weather. This will affect fishermen, search and rescue, and even crafts involved in national security, Joyce argued. That doesn’t even address the fact that parts of turbines will certainly fall off during bad weather, to the severe detriment of local marine life and boats alike. This includes not only turbine blades but the chains used to secure them, which wear out quickly over a few years’ time and can break. “In regards to navigation, it creates a whole new dynamic,” he said.
Hawkins, building on Joyce’s comments, noted that not only is the WEA large, but, once designated a WEA legally, it is considered thus forever. There was one example of a WEA where the turbines were not built after all, but the companies could potentially come back years later and build with few regulatory hoops, because once a WEA, always a WEA. “They are rushing to get some lease on paper [in Maine] before the end of this administration, it’s very clear that they are — by making this designation, they’re making it sort of ‘political proof,’ so that in the future” a presidency more interested in fishermen and marine life than in climate virtue-signaling could not reverse the damage.
The whole claim of protecting the environment through offshore wind is bogus. As Hawkins explained, the environmental review on the turbines’ impacts is not even conducted until businesses get agreements from state governments and fully design their projects! “They’re just rushing ahead to lease it before the election,” Hawkins said.
There is no climate crisis, as Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr. John Clauser emphasized last year, with plenty of data to back him up. Climate alarmists have been consistently wrong for 50+ years, and they’re not any more accurate now. The offshore wind craze will be horrible both for the environment and for the Maine fishing industry, but climate alarmists in government and Big Business don’t care as long as they can increase their own wealth and power.
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