On the day of his swearing-in, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump issued an executive order that effectively halted the Biden administration’s push to rapidly develop offshore wind development facilities. The order withdraws the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing and reviews the federal government’s leasing and permitting process for wind projects.
“This withdrawal temporarily prevents consideration of any area in the OCS for any new or renewed wind energy leasing for the purposes of generation of electricity or any other such use derived from the use of wind,” reads the order. “This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation. Nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas.”
Experts have indicated that the issuance of this order will impact the energy industry and could lead to a decline in whale deaths off the East Coast.
It has long been known that development of offshore wind energy facilities pose mortality risks to whales, sea turtles, and other marine species, including especially the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.
How Much Does Offshore Wind Power Threaten Critically Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales?
The John Locke Foundation’s (JLF) Center for Food, Power, and Life (CFPL) has highlighted numerous concerns about large-scale wind projects off North Carolina’s coast. These include higher electricity costs, job losses, negative impacts on coastal fishing and tourism, military training and radar interference, and the heightened risk of building in the state’s hurricane-prone waters.
“Another reason is the deadly effect that construction and operation of offshore wind energy facilities have on marine birds and animals, especially the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales,” said Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food, Power and Life at JLF. “Already nearing extinction, these whales have been furthermore classified by NOAA Fisheries as under an ‘Unusual Mortality Event’ since 2017. The rapidly declining population is down to an estimated 360 whales, of which only 70 are capable of bearing calves.”
The Biden administration had swiftly pushed forward plans for 32 offshore wind facilities along the East Coast, placing them directly in key migratory, feeding, and calving areas for whales. Meanwhile, officials downplayed the potential risks to these marine mammals. In 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that the right whale population could not sustain even a single death or serious injury from human causes in a year. By 2023, NOAA Fisheries estimated that the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project could result in the deaths or serious injuries of eight North Atlantic right whales annually. Yet, in 2024, the National Marine Fisheries Service revised its estimate, claiming the project would not harm a single whale—despite an ongoing federal lawsuit challenging this conclusion.
The NOAA insists that “no evidence” exists that offshore wind development kills whales. The Biden administration pointed to three key elements to blame for whale deaths near offshore wind projects: vessel strikes, fishing gear entanglements, and “climate change” driving the whales into areas where they are likely to be struck by boats or become entangled by fishing gear. The administration did not acknowledge the impact of the extensive wind facilities being built, which includes sonar activity, excessively loud pile-driving, noisy operation, and other activities that take place in the whale’s migratory, feeding, and calving paths, disrupting them and driving them into the paths of boats and fishing gear, according to Sanders.
In March 2023, three dead whales in three days—two humpbacks and one minke—washed ashore near the CVOW project and the developing Kitty Hawk wind energy area. During the span of one week in December, A North Atlantic right whale was seen and is believed to have died due from being entangled in fishing gear on the Outer Banks. In the same week, a dead humpback whale washed up on Kitty Hawk beach. Overall, 11 whale deaths were recorded in 2024 off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia.
“In this tidy blameshifting, a catalyst for exacerbating whale mortality events gets recast as the ‘solution,’” according to a JLF report from earlier this year. “Of course, it relies on people buying into the notion that 32 offshore wind facilities would actually mitigate carbon dioxide emissions enough to mitigate climate change, which, among many other things, would require ignoring that the U.S. has been leading the world in reduced CO2 emissions from energy while China has been belching out increased emissions many times over the amount the U.S. has cut.”
Intermittent energy sources impose significant costs on ratepayers, according to Sanders. Research published last year revealed that relying on intermittent wind and solar to meet the Carbon Plan’s generation needs—rather than dependable, efficient nuclear power—would necessitate constructing eight times more capacity and nine times more transmission infrastructure. Additionally, the report estimates that it would consume vast land, covering nearly one-fifth of the state’s onshore acreage. The report’s author says that these costs would ultimately fall on North Carolina electricity customers.
“Unlike the Biden administration’s heedless and hurried approach, the Trump order puts a halt to all ‘new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans for onshore or offshore wind projects pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal wind leasing and permitting practices,’” concluded Sanders. “Importantly, this assessment must include the projects’ environmental impacts on wildlife, including ‘birds and marine mammals.’ It must also take into account ‘the economic costs associated with the intermittent generation of electricity’ as well as ‘the effect of subsidies on the viability of the wind industry.’”