Orca-nized Narrative

This Week's Trend In Brief:

• Since December, at least nine whales have been stranded on the beaches of New Jersey and New York, at the same time as preconstruction work begins on offshore wind farms.
   

• While there is no evidence the offshore wind development is causing the whale deaths, local and even national media, as well as some environmental groups, are linking the two.
  

• The burgeoning fight over endangered whales and offshore wind is reminiscent of past media reporting of onshore wind and solar developments’ (often overstated) impacts on wildlife, particularly endangered species.
   

• As the U.S. looks to become a leader in emerging climate technologies, industry participants need to get ahead of the media hype with the facts and also expose where the hype is being driven by opposing interests – be they environmentalists or other industries.

Digging Deeper:

 
In recent weeks, “at least nine whales have been stranded on beaches” in the Northeast U.S., at the same time preconstruction work begins for offshore wind farms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated it does not have evidence connecting the offshore wind work to “these recent stranding events or any stranding events in the last several years.” However, Clean Ocean Action, one of the environmental organizations criticizing offshore wind development, has suggested the offshore development occurring at the same time as the whale beachings “may be more than just a fluke,” and the incidents are getting more and more prominent media coverage.
 
As the media rushes to cover the whale mortalities, it is reminiscent of media coverage linking other renewable developments to wildlife impacts. For years, the media has reported extensively on the purported harm infrastructure development might cause to wildlife, ranging from extensive coverage of onshore wind farms allegedly killing “thousands” of eagles, whether renewable development would truly impact endangered Joshua trees, or the risks solar panels might cause to endangered birds or desert tortoises. Frequently, the media narrative far exceeds the reality or manifests a connection that has not proven to exist.
 
Beneath the media narrative is a real and long simmering divide between environmentalists over what risk to endangered species is acceptable in the name of climate action. For much of the 50 years since the Endangered Species Act passed, environmentalists have demanded “what is known as the ‘precautionary principle,’ which states that if there is any risk that a human activity will make a species extinct, it should be illegal.” Indeed, this principle has pitted some pro-renewable activists for years against certain solar developments in the name of endangered species like the desert tortoise. Yet today, some groups are being accused of “betray[ing] the precautionary principle by risking the extinction of the North Atlantic right whale” in the name of offshore wind development. This divide has led some climate activists to accuse “America’s top environmental groups” of having “lost the plot on climate change,” arguing the group’s “conservation and climate action” goals “are often directly at odds.”
 
As the U.S. looks to promote emerging climate technologies like carbon capture and sequestration, developers of those projects could also find themselves at a similar  intersection of the debate between climate and species protections. Bolstered by significant policy support, “the U.S. is quickly emerging as the front-runner to become the global powerhouse of next-generation climate tech” like carbon capture and sequestration. Yet developers of these projects are already finding themselves caught at the intersection of the debate between climate action and species protection. For example, in Louisiana’s Lake Maurepas, environmental groups and fishing interests are opposing a blue hydrogen and carbon sequestration project over fears it could destroy the lake’s ecosystem – in and above the water. Similarly, at the same time as developers hope to sequester captured carbon in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are seeking stricter regulation of the Gulf to protect the critically endangered Rice’s Whale.
 
As this fight generates significant media coverage and activist attention, industry participants face new policymaker scrutiny and risk the media narrative becoming an accepted reality, even if it does not match the facts. Concern over whale strandings in the North Atlantic has gone quickly from an internal fight between environmental activists debating climate vs conservation to a national conversation with significant political and reputational ramifications. As media figures like Tucker Carlson focus on the purported risk offshore wind presents to whales, the idea that offshore wind is responsible for the death of whales could quickly become considered a fact in the eyes of many, regardless of whether it is true or not. Already mayors, state legislators, and Members of Congress, including Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), who co-chairs the Congressional Offshore Wind Caucus, have called for a pause on offshore wind activity until hearings are held. As activists and other interests continue to promote concerns about the risk of infrastructure development to wildlife, garnering growing media and policymaker attention, it will be crucial for industry to stay ahead of these conversations, and stay armed with the facts, to ensure they can continue to operate in a manageable regulatory landscape.

Trends in Energy is your weekly look at key trends affecting the energy industry, brought to you by the competitive intelligence experts at Delve. As the political and regulatory landscape continues to shift, reach out to learn how our insights can help you navigate these challenges.