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Time could be running out on RI offshore wind farms
Credit: Elizabeth Quattrocki Knight and Bill Thompson · Published Nov. 24, 2024 · providencejournal.com ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
The victory by President-elect Donald Trump shook up the political landscape − and it also turned on its head the U.S. energy terrain. The Journal asked days after the election, “Could a Trump presidency stop” offshore wind in Rhode Island?
We are neither Trump supporters nor endorsers of any party or candidate. We are nonpartisan and we care about one issue: stopping the environmentally and economically disastrous construction of offshore wind turbines.
Given that, we hope the answer to The Journal’s question is a resounding YES. In fact, we will go one step further and urge Revolution Wind and Ørsted to pull the plug now. Heed the advice of Kenny Rogers: “Know when to fold them.”
Every day they pile-drive more massive foundations, run more diesel-fueled vessels, and create more deafening acoustic disturbances is another day they pollute our waters, contaminate our seafood, harm the fragile ocean ecosystem, and threaten the survival of more whales, dolphins and sea turtles.
Offshore wind was sold to the people of Rhode Island under false pretenses. It is supposed to save the planet, delay climate change, create scores of great new jobs − and cut your power bills. And, like those late night TV ads from Ron Popeil − “Wait, there’s more!” − offshore wind is supposed to do all of these things without harming the environment.
We are not exaggerating these exaggerated claims. None of them is true.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has conceded in the environmental impact statements for Revolution Wind and virtually all other wind projects that offshore wind will have no real impact on mitigating climate change. The wave of “new jobs” has not materialized. The cost of generating electricity from wind power is five times higher than from natural gas. And, as the Vineyard Wind broken blade fiasco has inarguably proved, there is no free environmental lunch when you build wind farms.
Moreover, thousands of gallons of oil are needed at each wind farm, and many tons of toxic neodymium are used to make the magnets for each unit.
And let us not forget the dead whales, including the three most recent ones in Hull and Westport, Massachusetts.
Oh − and Ørsted is a foreign company that began life as the Danish state-owned fossil fuel company and many of its peers boast the same lineage. Some of them generate substantial revenues from selling oil and natural gas.
Ørsted’s stock plunged after Trump was elected. Its offshore wind subsidiary could not exist without the billions of dollars in subsidies it gets from the federal government. In May, Trump said he planned to scrap offshore wind projects on “day one” in the Oval Office.
Windpower Monthly reported recently: “Share prices in major wind turbine manufacturers and project developers plunged on Wednesday morning after Donald Trump won the US presidential election.”
Ørsted wrote off $4 billion last year due to two canceled offshore wind projects in New Jersey. As a result of the pullout, it is set to pay New Jersey $125 million. The company has taken another $334 million loss on the Revolution Wind project in just this past quarter.
Its CEO, Mads Nipper, has called the U.S. wind projects “the most painful part of our portfolio.”
It’s time for Ørsted to end its pain. It should do in Rhode Island what it did in New Jersey: face the inevitable, stop building environmentally destructive wind turbines, and start restoring Rhode Island’s marine environment.
Elizabeth Quattrocki Knight and Bill Thompson are the cofounders of Green Oceans, a nonpartisan grassroots nonprofit group opposed to offshore wind development.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
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