The offshore wind industry says “misinformation” from enemies is a powerful headwind it must combat

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – The US offshore wind energy industry says it must defend itself against the spread of disinformation by wind farm opponents.

On the first day of a national offshore wind conference Tuesday in New Jersey that has become the starting point for vocal, well-organized opposition to such projects, numerous industry representatives said they were engaged in an uphill battle against deliberate falsehoods.

These include previously unsubstantiated claims that offshore wind turbine preparations are killing whales along the East Coast.

“We know it wasn't us, and we have the research to back it up,” said Crystal Pruitt, field director for Atlantic Shores, a company planning two offshore wind farms off the coast of New Jersey. “But the hardest part is proving a negative.”

She said the industry must publicly defend itself against disinformation.

“If you tell me that the hum of the turbines 10 to 12 miles from the beach would drive me crazy, that's not real and someone needs to say that,” Pruitt said.

Paulina O'Connor, executive director of the New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance, said she and others in the industry have met with opponents to give them facts about the industry.

“I don’t think we’re getting through to them,” she said. “I don’t have the feeling that we will achieve this breakthrough. It’s hard to predict what crazy thing they’ll come up with.”

Last year, when there was a spate of whale deaths on the East Coast, offshore wind opponents began linking them to survey work to prepare the seabed for wind turbines

But numerous federal and local authorities say there is no evidence linking offshore wind to the deaths of the whales, many of which showed signs of being struck by ships.

Alicia Gene Artessa, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance, likened trying to counter disinformation about offshore wind energy to hitting the wind.

“Every time you feel like you have a local opposition under control, they come up with a new issue and start pumping money into it,” she said.

One of the most vocal opposition groups, Protect Our Coast NJ, whose members held anti-offshore wind signs as they demonstrated outside the hall where Tuesday's conference was held, said the industry was the party spreading falsehoods.

“We are appalled that our movement is being pressured, without evidence, by climate industry backers who want to make money if offshore wind becomes a reality,” said Robin Shaffer, the group’s president. “This is a case in which we are accusing our group of doing exactly what they themselves are doing: muddying the waters and spreading disinformation to the ignorant public.”

The stakes are high for an industry that is making uneven progress toward its goal of having at least 20% of the country's electricity come from offshore wind by 2035.

According to the American Clean Power Association, there is nearly 65 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity under development in the U.S., enough to power over 26 million homes.

But several high-profile projects have been abandoned, including two in New Jersey that Danish wind giant Orsted pulled the plug on a year ago. And a blade failure at the Vineyard Wind project off Martha's Vineyard this summer has only reinforced the belief among opponents that offshore wind power is unstable and uneconomical.

Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association, condemned Tuesday's announcement that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had selected two developers to build offshore wind turbines on four lease sites in the Gulf of Maine, calling it “a hasty one.” Regulatory process”. The turbine failure at Vineyard Wind was not taken into account.

“Vineyard Wind is a slow-moving disaster,” he said. “It is now evident that foreign megadevelopers and their political allies are cutting corners to bring their flagship project online.”

J. Timmons Roberts, a Brown University researcher who has studied offshore wind opposition groups, said the dynamic has shifted from denying climate change to trying to discredit solutions to it.

“When I saw the rise of these groups in Rhode Island, I was very upset,” he said. “All the arguments I see are lurid or just flat-out false,” including claims that wind farms would actually cause carbon dioxide levels to rise. He added that the industry needs to do a much better job of making its case on social media.

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