Multiple reports over the weekend indicated that President-elect Donald Trump is promising near-immediate action to shut down offshore wind farm projects throughout the Northeast United States, which were widely unpopular with locals who feared the industrialization of their natural shorelines and environmental destruction.
The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden had prioritized funding and support for offshore wind projects during its four years in power, including major wind farm subsidies in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” and relying on leftist governors in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts to back the projects. The projects attracted loud opposition from local tourism industries and environmentalists, who noted a significant increase in the number of washed-up whale carcasses along the shoreline as sonar work began off the Northeast coast.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has rejected the alleged links between whale deaths and offshore wind development, but many prominent local political leaders have rejected the denials on the grounds that they were offered with little detail. NOAA blames the increased number of whale deaths oh an “unusual mortality event” that began in 2016, shortly before the development of America’s first offshore wind farm, the Block Island Wind Farm off of Rhode Island.
The Associated Press confirmed on Friday with Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), one of the most vocal opponents of offshore wind farms in New Jersey, that President-elect Trump had asked for his help in drafting an executive order to stop offshore wind projects.
“I said ‘Mr. President, we need to move on this.’ He said, ‘Yeah, we definitely do. I agree. I’m against them,’ ” Van Drew told the Associated Press. “He said, ‘Write an executive order, get it to my people.’”