While the Gulf of Maine boondoggle is on hold pending review despite existing undeveloped lease sales, we’ve been stomping on the accelerator to increase public awareness to stop it. We’ve published a few dozen posts on why it’s a bad idea, not the least of which is GOM advocates past remarks about how fragile its ecosystem is already.
Lobsterman are a threat, but a massive industrial project involving tons of concrete steel, micro-plastic shedding Bisphenol B polymers, and the machinery required to get it all out there and installed are not.
Sure.
Wind power is ugly, unreliable, expensive, and presents tangible threats to the mortality of ocean wildlife, but hey, whatever. These dubious eyesores will help us save the planet, but who will save it from wind turbines? That’d be the diverse coalition of fishermen, lobstermen, a handful of environmentalists not bought by the greenwashers, a handful of elected officials at the state and local level, and sites like Granite Grok.
The blowhards for wind rushed the process through to get approvals and leases before Biden lost, which he did, and while that change could save the Gulf of Maine, we’re still finding receipts to prove it was always a bad idea.
According to Blackout News, a decisive factor for dismantling the [Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm] is the expiration of generous subsidies made possible through Germany’s EEG renewable energies feed-in act. The subsidy meant that the Alpha Ventus wind farm got 15.4 cents per kilowatt hour after being put in operation. Now that the subsidy has run out, the wind farm operators receive only the basic tariff of 3.9 cents per kilowatt hour, thus making the farm unprofitable.
Offshore wind is more expensive upfront and throughout whatever passes for its lifecycle. Operating conditions are challenging, making inspections and repairs more time-consuming and costly. We’ve also seen what happens when storms or structural failure damage turbines. Nantucket’s beaches were closed for months over the summer after a turbine blade broke apart, depositing fiberglass and other debris along the island’s coast.
The Gulf of Maine project has several other flaws. It was rushed, public comment was ignored, it was rushed (yes, I said that twice), and there is currently no way to bring the electricity generated to shore.
We hope these and other issues will result in the federal government canceling the leases and ending the project.
Update: “Federal officials pulled a permit from Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind (Coast of New Jersey) on Friday in a move that could spell more delays and setbacks for New Jersey’s first offshore wind energy facility.“
It was pulled because of its potential environmental impact.
That’s the roadmap to ending these whale-killing bondoggles.
