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whales, he said. “You can’t just go and add another significant impact to the species,” he said. Ørsted has made changes to its planned Ocean Wind layout in response to fishermen’s concerns, and the developers must address other environmental issues, so “it is not a done deal at all,” Shellenberger told the audience. “There’s much more you guys can do. There’s no reason this project can’t be wiped right off the drawing board.”
Poised to surge, the U.S. offshore wind industry faces risks. By Kirk Moore, Contributing Editor
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Michael Shellenberger is an environmental journalist and author.
brought in Michael Shellenberger to speak in Ocean City, where the longtime environmental writer and founder of the nonprofit think tank Environmental Progress made his case that “if you really care about climate change, we’d be doing more nuclear power.” Shellenberger is a prominent figure in what has been called the ecomodernist movement – intellectuals who recognize threats to the environment but believe society will overcome them with technology. Author of the book “Apocalypse Never” published by Harper Collins in 2020, Shellenberger summarized his views from the viewpoint of an “environmental humanist” recognizing global progress since the 1970s. After a morning spent with his hosts on a whale-watching vessel, Shellenberger laid into the subject in his talk. Beyond direct impacts from wind farm construction and operation, any losses to the right whale population would have consequences for the commercial fishing industry, already under intense pressure to end gear entanglements with
Environmental Progress
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ith enthusiastic support from the Biden administration and state governments, the sails are full and speed is gathering for the U.S. offshore wind energy industry. But shoals lie ahead. Federal regulators, wind developers and state officials must come to grips with details of how building hundreds of wind turbines off the East Coast can be reconciled with maritime and coastal communities that are demanding to be heard. Opponents in coastal communities are looking for ways to block onshore wind power infrastructure, especially power cable landfalls and grid interconnections. The realm envisioned for offshore power, from Maine to the Carolinas, is a migratory highway for critically endangered species like the northern right whale. Less than 400 whales are estimated to survive now in the entire population. East Coast wind energy will bring construction and undersea noise that “will probably go on for decades,” said Tricia Conte of Save Our Shoreline in Ocean City, N.J., which is opposed to Ørsted’s planned Ocean Wind project. “I don’t see how those under-400 animals are going to survive this.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation July 22 to strip Ocean City, or any other local government, from the ability to stop offshore wind power cables from being installed. Murphy and powerful Democratic leaders in the state Legislature who advocate developing offshore wind say they won’t allow local governments to derail the state’s renewable energy goals. A week earlier, Save Our Shoreline
COMPENSATORY MITIGATION Reuters reported on July 27 that officials in the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management who are driving offshore wind planning are talking about compensatory payments for displaced fishermen. But that was news to Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing groups and coastal communities. The only direct knowledge her group’s executive committee got was in an informal conference call with BOEM administrator Amanda Lefton and her staff, said Hawkins. Lefton said that BOEM would be working with state government officials to explore “compensatory mitigation” for fishermen forced out of work by wind farm development and would begin scheduling meetings for that effort. It also came up during a BOEM presentation to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council in June, said Hawkins. But Hawkins says that process is backward in not including fishermen at the onset of discussions. The funding method needs to be publicly discussed too, she said. “It’s an impact fee, it’s not mitigation,” said Hawkins. The funding should be calculated early and could be incorporated into wind developers’ power purchase agreements with states, not done at the 11th hour, she said. It must be a regional approach, not project-by-project, and compensation should come after regulators and developers have done everything possible to
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