The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Marine Fisheries Service have violated federal law by finding that the Virginia Offshore Wind project will not result in the destruction of the North Atlantic right whale as a species
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL (November 14, 2023) — The Heartland Institute and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) announced today that they are filing with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) a 60 Day Notice of Intent to Sue letter for a violation of the Endangered Species Act. The violation is contained in a defective “biological opinion,” which authorizes the construction of the Virginia Offshore Wind Project (VOW).
The 60 Day Notice is required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for parties who wish to commence litigation against BOEM for failure to provide adequate protection of the North Atlantic right whale and other endangered species. The North Atlantic right whale is listed as “critically endangered” by governments of both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States. Numerous studies by federal and environmental organizations have found that only about 350 North Atlantic right whales remain in existence.
CFACT and The Heartland Institute assert that the Biological Opinion issued by the NMFS fails to consider the cumulative impact of the entire East Coast offshore wind program ordered by the Biden administration, and ignores the “best scientific information available” about the endangered population of the North Atlantic right whale. The biological opinion found that the VOW would not cause a single death of that species of whale over its 30-year projected lifetime — although it did acknowledge the wind project could result in Level B harassment. That level could, according to NMFS, result in indirect death, requiring the need for a “take” permit, which authorizes the “harassment” and potential killing of the North Atlantic right whale.
“We need to send a message to BOEM and NMFS that there will be legal consequences if they violate legal requirements for protection of the North Atlantic Right Whale,” said H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute. “The Biden administration’s plan to industrialize the ocean along the East Coast must follow the law, and we will intervene, if necessary, to make sure that the North Atlantic right whale continues to exist as a species.”
“This letter officially puts BOEM on notice that CFACT is prepared to file suit in order to expose the agency’s clear violation of federal law in failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale,” said Craig Rucker, president of CFACT. “By refusing to consider the cumulative impact of the dozens of industrial offshore wind facilities, consisting of several thousand individual turbines planned for the East Coast, it adopted a piecemeal approach, which only considered each individual offshore wind project in isolation. This is clearly a ploy to artificially reduce the total impact of these projects on the North Atlantic Right Whale. This obvious violation of federal law was ignored by the oversight agencies but will not be tolerated by the courts.”
“BOEM has admitted that it produced noise control regulations for the North Atlantic right whale that were based on guesswork — not on the ‘best available science’ — as required by law,” said Collister Johnson, senior policy adviser for CFACT. “They have funded ongoing studies that will finally produce information necessary to determine the noise impacts of offshore wind factories on baleen whales, such as the North Atlantic right whale. The results will not be available until 2025, at the earliest. This is a further violation of federal law, in addition to ignoring the cumulative impacts.
“There is a reason why Dominion Energy’s stock price has declined by 50 percent over the past year,” Johnson added. “Investors know that Dominion’s wind project is a costly, risky gamble that has already driven most other East Coast wind developers to either renegotiate their utility contracts or abandon their projects altogether. If Dominion decided tomorrow to abandon this project, as it should, its stock price would improve dramatically, and a huge financial cloud hanging over its future would be removed.”
The 60-day notice letter instructs the federal government agencies to take corrective action to remedy the alleged violations. If no corrective action is taken, the signatories of the letter are allowed to seek relief through the courts. The most likely venue for this litigation would be the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The firm of Gatzke, Dillon and Ballance has filed the letter as counsel for the CFACT and The Heartland Institute. The firm is currently representing plaintiffs in ongoing litigation against BOEM and NMFS, who are opposing construction offshore wind projects in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.
Earlier this year, more than two dozen large dead whales washed up on the shores of New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, directly following 11 offshore sonar mapping activities conducted by wind developers. These “site characterization” studies use high-powered sonar pulses to determine the proper areas for placing the wind turbines. Sonar mapping has been found to interfere with the hearing capabilities of marine mammals. Environmental groups have successfully sued the Navy to restrict sonar mapping being conducted in the Pacific Ocean.
The 60-day notice adds to the risks faced by Dominion Energy as it attempts to build an offshore wind generation facility that would be the largest such project of its kind in the world. Siemens Energy, which has been designated by Dominion as the supplier of the huge 14MW turbines for the project, recently announced a write down of €2.4 billion for the 3rd quarter, leading to an annual loss of €4.5 Billion, due to costly mechanical failures in its new wind turbines. The company has said its turbine failures are a “quality issue” which “will take years to fix.”
Measured in megawatts, some 80 percent of the proposed East Coast wind projects have either been abandoned or are in the process of trying to renegotiate their power purchase agreements.
The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.
CFACT is a national non-profit organization founded in 1985 and based in Washington DC which believes that the power of markets and safe, proven technologies can offer humanity practical solutions to the world’s most pressing concerns.
Raptors, now whales? I rather think the Green Blob does not really care about wildlife.
Only when they can use it as a club to beat the oil and gas industry with – note the difference in attitude towards the North Atlantic Right Whale and the Rice’s (Baleen) Whale in the Gulf of Mexico.
The discovery of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859 almost certainly saved the whales!
Glad to see this happening. Wishing Heartland and CFACT good luck.
KILL WIND TURBINES, NOT AVIAN AND MARINE WILDLIFE. I should have a shirt printed which says that.
Wind Mills
Kill Whales
Would fit on a tee shirt better
The Letter outlines 12 scientific arguments, mostly deep issues the Feds have refused to consider. Hopefully now they will have to.
See https://heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Heartland-Institute-and-CFACT-60-Day-Notice-of-Intent-to-Sue-re-CVOW-Biological-Opinion-11-14-23.pdf
Strange that Greenpeace is nowhere to be seen. Whats up with that?
Greenpeace, like all the other “green” groups is not an enviornmental organization. It and the others are outright Marxist, anticapitalist front groups funded worldwide to destroy the Jeudeo/Christian enlightment.
Marxism is where the State owns the means of production. That is not being advocated.
Bullshit. Describe the difference between owning and controlling. Marxism is most importantly a philosophy of struggles between the oppressed and their oppressors; Marxist Critical Theory.
Owning the means of production is Marxist, controlling the means of production is Fascist. It’s splitting hairs really as both are left-wing socialist ideologies, Marxism being a little further left though.
Or is that Critical Marxist Theory?
$ contributions
Or the Sea Shepherd lot – they should be all over this, saving whales is what they do.
Along with the Sierra Club and WWF
Its Founder recognized Reality.
Yet another boondoggle by the government.
where is the scientific evidence for believing that whales are dying from Wind turbines?
C’mon, after all, it’s for the children. If eliminating all ocean-based wind turbines could potentially maybe save one whale, wouldn’t it be worth doing?
On the shore in NJ.
Greenpeace says that the oil industry is killing whales with their seismic and sonar tests. Who am I to argue with the scientific geniuses at Greenpeace?
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/oceans/save-the-whales/seismic-sonar-testing/
There’s no scientific evidence for warming by human released CO2…
.. but that hasn’t stopped trillions of dollars being wasted, thousands of avian and aquatic creatures being destroyed by pseudo-energy supplies like wind turdines and solar industrial estates..
Sonar blasting started in 2016. The humpback death rate suddenly tripled and the right whale population started declining, leading the the present threat of extinction. NOAA’ has authorized several hundred thousand “harassments” of whales, with hundreds of thousands more in applications.
Harassment increases the risk of death and we are seeing death.
The evidence is strong.
Correction, thousands of whale harassments and hundreds of thousands of marine protected mammal harassments. Dolphins take the biggest hit.
“Dolphins take the biggest hit.” Sad, because they seem to be much more ‘human’ than many Humans.
Can it get any more ironic that this halfrunt and Mr. tonyx, AGW acolytes, demanding “cause and effect” evidence? What are the odds that the willfully blind will see evidence?
No bet.
Go check the Save the Whales website, they have all the evidence you need.
And if you’re still not convinced, email them.
I did and lo and behold, Save the Whales gave me chapter and verse and their submissions on this very issue.
There is zero evidence to connect whale deaths with the construction of wind turbines. Of course the fossil fuel industry’s sock puppet (Heartland) would be deeply concerned about sonar surveys for oil rigs, and sonar used by submarines? No? I’m socked, truly shocked.
Dead whales on shore is a big ZERO to you?
There is zero evidence connecting the sonar surveys and construction work for wind turbines with the dead whales. Which is why species conservation orgs are not interested in this “story”, which is just a myth,
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/20/us/whale-deaths-offshore-wind-climate/index.html
‘Since 2016, scientists have been tracking elevated numbers of humpback whale deaths on the East Coast. From Maine to Florida, 178 whales have died, and scientists have examined about half of the incidents. Of those, about 40% were because whales were struck by ships or got tangled in ropes or nets in the water.’
Funny you should mention 2016 seeing as navigation sonar and increased sonar surveying really started increasing in 2015/16 onwards. We know whales are far more sensitive to underwater sounds than most species, which can lead to confusion and reduced impairment which, in turn, leads to them being unable to avoid being hit by boats propellers. Seismic surveys are even more intrusive than the sonars used and far more disruptive. The US Navy put a stop to using certain sonars near to whale territories because they knew the effect it had, it seems civilian use of sonar has been making the same mistakes. Time to stop using them and see what happens – if whales continue to die in numbers then we’ll look elsewhere, if they don’t then we’ve saved the whales (again).
So why then is greenpiss lobbying and fund raising to stop sonic surveying on the NW coast of Australia citing harm to whales?
Yes and sonar harassment greatly increases the likelihood of ship strikes and entanglements, by pushing the whales into heavy traffic and fishing areas. Those numbers are actually evidence against wind.
CNN?
The Compromised ‘News’ Network?
Go check the Save the Whales website, they have all the evidence you need.
And if you’re still not convinced, email them.
I did and lo and behold, Save the Whales gave me chapter and verse and their submissions on this very issue.
World’s Largest Offshore Wind System Developer Abandons Two Major US Projects as Wind Bust Continues
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/world-s-largest-offshore-wind-system-developer-abandons-two-major
EXCERPT
Opposition to Wind Turbines in New Jersey
Ocean Wind 1 and 2 were extremely unpopular in New Jersey, prompting widespread protests and aggressive congressional opposition, led by Jersey Shore lawmakers Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/11/02/foreign-company-cancels-hated-nj-offshore-wind-plants-after-whale-deaths-protests-blames-bidenflation/
Local commercial and recreational fishing industry professionals fear the wind turbine maritime leases would:
1) prevent them from making a living,
2) kill off thriving fisheries, and
3) destroy century-old traditions along the Shore.
“The commercial fishing industry is extremely upset with the visual observations of dead whales floating at sea,” Brick Wenzel, Point Pleasant Beach.
He is New Jersey’s fishing industry liaison, and a longtime commercial fisherman.
He told Breitbart News in March. “One vessel reported, they had seen 3 different whales in one trip.
Another had parts of a whale come up in their net.
Most of the captains are generational fishermen, and are in their 60s — no one has heard of, or seen anything like the carnage of whales”
The federal government has documented 66 whales stranded, including 10 in New Jersey, along the Atlantic Coast, up till October 2023
New Jersey has documented another 45 dolphins washing ashore in 2023
“The cancellation of the projects is a very, very big deal, and in my mind a good day for fishermen, for our tourism and our coasts, for whales and dolphins and life in the ocean, a good day for national security, and finally, a good day for our taxpayers and ratepayers,” said Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).
Sonar Mapping with TNT Explosive Charges
Environmentalists noted a concurrent increase in the deaths of marine mammals, particularly whales and dolphins, as Oersted’s subcontractors were using sonar mapping for foundations.
Sonar mapping involves detonating TNT charges, that bounce off rock strata to determine suitable areas for wind turbine foundations.
After that comes the driving of piles about 100 ft into bedrock, to support the mono-pile of each 850-ft tall wind turbine.
The sound waves of the pile driving travel at about 1500 m/sec in water vs about 340 m/s in air
The explosions of TNT emit sounds in excess of physically-destructive 125 decibels, which damage/destroy the sonar systems of whales, dolphins, etc., which significantly reduce the communication, navigational and food-finding abilities of whales and dolphins.
They become disoriented, get hit by ships, cannot find food, cannot find their mates, and wash onto shores
Bubble Curtains Protect Porpoises, Dolphins and Whales From Loud Sonic Mapping
BOEM, NOAA, etc., likely knew about the bubble curtains that minimize loud noises from solar mapping and pile driving, because those systems are used to protect whales, porpoises and dolphins in the Baltic Sea and North Sea, already for about 10 years.
Why was this not used before so many whales and dolphins were killed on the US East Coast, where 72 whales died since December 2022
The whales know what their nemesis is doing to their population
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/11/08/72-whales-have-died-on-the-east-coast-in-a-year-noaa-must-take-action/
BOEM, NOAA, etc., decided not to require them, because the bubble systems and suitable ships likely were not available in a timely manner, plus it would increase costs.
BOEM, NOAA, etc., eager not to be accused of slowing down Biden’s offshore wind projects, claimed, they ‘found no evidence linking sonar mapping detonations and the surge in whale and dolphin deaths”.
BOEM, NOAA, etc., enlisted the help of the lapdog US Media to spread the word.
However, Germany, etc., found the evidence more than 10 years ago, and did something about it.
In Germany, there is a saying: “Lügen haben kurze Beine”, or “Lies have short legs”.
Disparate New Jersey residents organized “Save the Whales” rallies, in defiance of those “official claims”.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231106-the-big-bubble-curtains-protecting-porpoises-from-wind-farm-noise
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/bubble_curtains_proposed_to_protect_whales_from_noise_pollution
See bubble curtain image in article. Go to URL at the top
.
https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12288098062?profile=RESIZE_710x
.
Above is an image of pile driving in the Baltic Sea. The specialized ships are about 400 ft long
Failure to use bubble curtains in waters off New England and off the New York/North Carolina shore likely killed a lot of whales and porpoises.
Below is a close-up image of bubble wall
See bubble system in article. Go to URL at the top
.
https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12288098456?profile=RESIZE_710x
Who writes this crap?
“Sonar mapping involves detonating TNT charges, that bounce off rock strata to determine suitable areas for wind turbine foundations.”
No-one uses “TNT charges” for offshore seismic and certainly not for “sonar” by definition.
And no-one writing these articles even understands the difference between “seismic” and “sonar”. Seismic is low frequency (tens to a few hundred Hz) with deep penetration below the seabed, sonar is very high frequency (KHz to 10’s KHz) with minimal penetration below the seabed, generally used for scanning for things in the water column or obstacles on the seabed. Sonar might be used for site survey and pipeline laying work to identify engineering hazards on the seafloor such as rocks or wrecks.
Offshore seismic surveys for oil and gas exploration almost invariably use airgun arrays which are low frequency sources, typically in the range 5 – 100 Hz. These can generate reflections from deep geological layers many km below surface
The only places where seismic surveys might use dynamite as a sound source is onshore in certain remote areas where Vibroseis trucks cannot be used.
Seismic for engineering surveys, such as for foundations of wind turbines, often use moderately higher frequency acoustic sources such as sparkers or boomers which have bandwidths up to several hundred Hz generally. These have reasonable penetration and can generate reflections from geological layers below the seabed, in the first few hundred metres. A layered earth is a low pass filter, so high frequencies do not penetrate far.
All of these are acoustic sound sources, however whales and dolphins use sonar themselves (as do bats) so are able to hear very high frequencies. There are many orders of magnitude difference in frequencies between seismic and sonar. All will affect whales and dolphins but there is definitely no TNT involved.
Thank you for your comment
As a result, I revised a part of my article
Here is the revised text
Seismic Mapping of Sea Floors for Offshore Turbine Foundations
Environmentalists noted a concurrent increase in the deaths of marine mammals, particularly whales and dolphins, as Oersted’s subcontractors were using sonar mapping for foundations. Various sound sources are used including Boomers and Sparkers to achieve deep signal penetration.
https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12291977299?profile=RESIZE_710x
See table in URL
After that comes the driving of piles about 100 ft (30 m) into bedrock, to support the mono-pile of each 850-ft tall wind turbine.
The sound waves travel at about 1500 m/sec in water vs about 340 m/s in air
The sounds of boomers vary from 300 Hz (cycles per second), a low sound, to 6000 Hz, a higher audible sound.
The sound of sparkers vary from 40 Hz, to 1500 Hz
40 Hz is a barely audible sound with a lot of energy that penetrates deeply into rock strata of the ocean floor
The sounds of boomers and sparkers are in excess of 200 decibels
That sound level has many thousand times more energy than the 125 decibels that causes damage to hearing in humans
Such sounds damage/destroy the echo-locating, sonar systems of whales, dolphins, etc., which significantly reduce their communication, navigational and food-finding abilities.
They become disoriented, get hit by ships, cannot find food, cannot find their mates, and wash onto shores
https://tos.org/oceanography/article/acoustic-impacts-of-offshore-wind-energy-on-fishery-resources-an-evolving-source-and-varied-effects-across-a-wind-farms-lifetime
A Guide to Sub-Bottom Profiling
https://www.aaetechnologiesgroup.com/news/guide-to-sub-bottom-profiling/#:~:text=Boomer%20and%20Sparker%20sub%2Dbottom,rapidly%20discharged%20to%20the%20source
Marine life is far less important than leftist political ideology, don’t ya know?
+100 !!!!!
Not a single whale has ever been killed by sonar. Sonar is used by every single ship and most boats, as well as all underwater surveys for everything including marine oil and gas exploration, marine structure design … essentially this is an attempt to criminalize most marine engineering and marine navigation of every kind. This is beyond ridiculous and will be tossed out of court in short order.
But sonar is used much more carefully by the US Navy after they discovered that it has a harmful effect on whales. Oddly enough the increase in whale deaths coinsided with the increased use of civilian navigation sonar and increased hydrological surveys around the US coasts. Not a coincidence.
Coincided. Can someone please get the edit button fixed?
And subs don’t want to be found. They primarily use passive sonar. (They listen for sounds.) They have active sonar which sends out a “ping” and ten listen for the sound of it bouncing back but once they send out a “ping”, they’ve given their position away.
Yes I know. It’s called a “ping” but, in a submarine, sonar sounds like gravel being thrown against the side.
Greenpeace disagrees with you. They blame sonar for whale deaths off the NW coast of Australia.
Ships (I don’t know about subamrines but I suspect they also) when they get close to land turn off their sonar and follow well marked channels, are guided by tugs or have local harbor captains. The US Navy has known this since my Dad was in the service in the very early 60’s (and I suspect for even even longer) that sonar messes up whales and their ‘sonar’ very badly and always turn off their sonar when close to land.
It seems it’s OK to kill koalas in Australia as long as it is for a wind farm expansion….
Story tip:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/wind-farm-company-responds-to-animal-euthanasia-claims-5528198
From your link. You could at least read it.:
Squadron Energy, overseeing the project, said in its 125-page biodiversity management document that the euthanasing process for injured animals involved delivering a “hard, sharp blow to the base of the back of the skull” using a blunt metal or heavy wooden bar such as a sledgehammer or crowbar.
However, the company said the first stage of clearing for the project—60 percent complete—recorded no injuries or fatalities among koalas during construction.
“the company said”
and gullible fools actually “believe” them.. WOW !
Absolutely. The little darlin’s scampered off into the bush, right as rain, never to be seen again.
Just destruction of their habitat, eh?
Where are GreenPiss when you need them?
They really should rename themselves OilPiss as that seems to be all they do, campaign to piss off the oil industry, gone are the days when they gave a damn about the natural world.
If that whale was covered in oil it would be on the front page of every newspaper on earth.