Offshore Wind: The Great Stampede Over the Long Island Cliff

The stampede to build offshore wind turbines to replace fossil fuel generation is loaded with concerns that have not been thought through or been resolved.

The great offshore wind stampede?

1. There is no climate crisis: thousands of scientists and meteorologists around the world have published studies that LOCAL extreme events are caused by cyclical weather (decades, centuries, millennia): solar activity, ocean cycles, cosmic ray intensity, volcanic activity (surface and undersea), orbital cycles and planetary cycles to name some. CO2 is NOT causing global warming. In fact, its role is trivial and it is enabling record plant, forest, and crop production. Sea level rise is often due to land subsidence (sinking).  There is record polar ice, polar bears are flourishing, and the earth has cooled over the last decade.  Coral reefs are fine and Pacific Islands are increasing in area.  United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) doom and gloom reports have been crying for decades that the end of the planet is here; the reports use faulty input data, have extreme projections divorced from reality, and are written by people with political  and career agenda.
2. The call to close reliable, cost-effective fossil and nuclear power plants will lead to blackouts and higher costs.  In 2021 New York onshore wind nameplate capacity output was 22% and utility-scale solar nameplate capacity was 18%.  Although the Scoping Plan claims higher values in the future, the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.  The wind turbines need 10 times more steel, concrete and rare earths (foreign sourced) than conventional power. Mining and refining the massive amounts of copper, aluminum, rare earths and steel disrupts the environment and emits many times more CO2 than the manufacture of conventional generation. They shut down in weather extremes (Texas and N. Carolina) and have a significantly shorter life in the harsh marine environment.  End-of-life disposal of giant turbine blades is expensive and difficult.
3. Thousands of miles of redundant new transmission cables and towers must be built (increasing pollution emissions) and billions spent in backup battery power when the unreliables (renewable wind and solar) fail.  Several battery storage facilities have ignited in unquenchable, toxic fires.  Fossil plants must be constantly running anyway for spinning reserves when unreliable wind and solar fail.  Starting and stopping loads increases emissions in the fossil-fueled generators.
4. The recent mass deaths of whales and dolphins from New England to Mid-Atlantic is directly correlated with offshore wind site surveys. Seismic surveys, machine gun sonar, pile driving, blasting and other construction sounds are greatly amplified and transmitted underwater to mammals like whales and dolphins.  They become deaf, have nervous system infections, and get disoriented which facilitate beaching and ship collisions.  Even if it turns out that the mapping activities are not the cause, construction activities are different and there are no plans to evaluate those concerns before construction begins.
5. The massive turbines create subsonic sounds which are vastly amplified via underwater transmission and injure whales’ and dolphins’ hearing.
6. The huge turbine blades kill thousands of sea and land birds, including Bald Eagles and bats each year.
7. The turbine blades weighing hundreds of tons, are not recyclable and pose a massive disposal problem.
8. Wind and solar require hundreds of times more seabed and land area than the equivalent fossil generation. This area is forever damaged for natural purposes.
9. Europe and the UK, especially Germany, have embraced wind and solar for years. The power delivery has been so poor that they are reopening many coal power plants. The price of electricity has increased 600% rendering Europe’s industry non-competitive and many factories have shuttered.
10. If unreliables (wind and solar power) were so good, they would not need hundreds of billions of taxpayer subsidy dollars shoved into foreign and domestic companies.
11. With Russia, China, India and other countries opening hundreds of fossil fuel and nuclear plants, a zero-emission New York State will have NO measurable effect on global pollution.
12. The Governor’s plan to electrify heating, cooking and vehicles in New York will require quantities of electricity and backup storage that will be impossible to obtain and afford.  Europe has tried it resulting in electricity costs so high and unreliable that businesses and manufacturing have closed and many must choose between heating and buying food. Before our leaders see the disaster, they caused, we can only work toward reversing this coming disaster.
13. Fossil and nuclear power plants must remain open and running (spinning reserves) to plug the frequent gaps in solar and wind generation.  There is little or no emissions reduction and rates shoot up to pay for both systems of generation.
14. The Unreliables (wind and solar) industry, foreign and domestic, have spent millions lobbying for these projects. Gore, Kerry, Bloomberg and others have made billions trading carbon credits and investing in “green” companies. Foreign and domestic wind and solar companies are making a windfall in government taxpayer subsidies. They will get rich while we burn candles.