A Texas-based conservative think tank is fighting a wind farm in the North Atlantic. That may sound like a dream, but it is reality and it shows how much fossil fuel money is out there.
The Vineyard Wind farm, which was greenlit in May, will comprise 84 turbines in two locations that would power 400,000 homes, despite a long stakeholder process where the government and wind companies say they have made concessions to fishermen.
The wind farm has been challenged by six local people. They are teaming up with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The group perpetuates some of the most batshit climate denial out there, including the idea that carbon dioxide is good because it is plant food. The organization was heavily involved in pushing a false story that frozen turbine caused the Texas power failures. Fossil fuel companies and their ideological defenders have given funding to the TPPF in the past decade.
Some of the GOP's top stars, including Florida Gov. Ron deSantis and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, have participated in the organization. Their involvement in an issue that is clear across the country isn't surprising but it is still ominous.
The seafood dealer who is one of the six local people who are in the lawsuit approached the TPPF earlier this year for help fighting the Vineyard Wind project. Ted Hadzi-Antich, senior attorney for the Trans Pacific Partnership, said in a press release that the lawsuit aims to protect the communities that depend on fishing to support their families and ensure the areas do not become wastelands for marine wildlife.
In a normal legal move, theTPPF created a cinematic trailer for its involvement in the case. The scaremongering clip focuses on shots of an East Coast fishing town, set over a sea shantyesque soundtrack. A separate, shorter trailer seems to be aimed at New York. There have been no studies done on what the turbines may do to wildlife, and there is a weird claim that offshore turbines haven't worked anywhere in the world. There is a weird claim about the magnetic frequencies that sound similar to one made in a lawsuit by residents of the area. An expert said that part of the case was stupid. We reached out to the people in the video and will update this piece if we hear back.
The offshore wind fight is not the only one funded by fossil-fuel companies. A group of residents from Nantucket filed a lawsuit against Vineyard Wind in August, claiming they were concerned about the project's impact on the North Atlantic right whale. The group has deep financial ties to other conservative groups.
One of the most important steps to keeping ocean animals from dying out and the fishing industry alive is to fight climate action. The 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which was caused by an offshore drilling industry that builds structures in the ocean where fishermen work, was a disaster for the fishing industry.
That shows that the lawsuits are about defending fossil fuel interests from the threat of renewable energy. Despite being a source of carbon-free energy, the U.S. is behind the UK, China, and a number of European countries in installing offshore wind farms. The Vineyard Wind project will help the Biden administration reach its goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity online by 2030. Vineyard Wind is going to be a test balloon for the dirty powers to see if they can use fishermen with real, if slightly misguided, concerns for their livelihoods as pawns in a larger fight.
