special interest groups

Europe has 37 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity. China is catching up rapidly. Across the globe, offshore wind is an increasingly important source of clean, renewable power. The United States had previously set ambitious goals to join the international effort. But in the aftermath of the 2024 election, offshore wind in the US is basically dead in the water, pun intended.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced at the end of July that it is rescinding all designated Wind Energy Areas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, effectively ending all offshore wind development across the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic. Additional policy measures announced by the Department of the Interior ended special treatment for what it called “unreliable energy sources, such as wind.”

The two significant offshore wind projects underway in the US are both under serious attack by the administration and by newly emboldened special interests. Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts, with 17 turbines already in operation, is under assault by tourist town forces and fishing groups. Empire Wind, in New York, which resumed construction after efforts by Governor Kathy Hochul, is under pressure by various special interest groups that are urging President Trump to halt the project.

The current administration has very public and very pronounced antipathy towards wind power in general and towards offshore wind in particular. And this has brought to a rapid halt billions of dollars in investments and will eliminate tens of thousands of jobs.

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US offshore wind, long ‘dead,’ now really dead

Photo, posted September 15, 2016, courtesy of Lars Plougmann via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world and people are mostly the reason. Species are disappearing because of changes in land and sea use, the direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species resulting from globalization. The challenges of conserving the world’s species are many and difficult. Among these challenges are determining which species are endangered and how and when to protect them.

What constitutes an endangered species is not necessarily obvious.

Extinction risk increases as a species is driven to extinction from portions of its natural range. Most mammal species have already been driven to extinction from half or more of their historic ranges because of human activities.

According to a recent survey of ordinary Americans, three-quarters of participants said that a species deserves special protections if it had been driven to extinction from any more than 30% of its historic range. This compares with the language of the U.S. Endangered Species Act that defines an endangered species as one that is “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”

Experts and decision-makers are more accepting of risks and losses because they believe greater protection would be impossibly expensive. Decision-makers tend to be influenced by special interest groups with a vested interest in not instituting protections.

Before human activities began elevating extinction risk, a typical vertebrate species would have experienced an extinction risk of 1% over a 10,000-year period. Current policies consider a 5% risk over 100 years to be acceptable. Policies consider whether we can afford to protect species. Given the dangers of declining biodiversity, we should ask whether we can afford not to.

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What Is An Endangered Species?

Photo, posted July 29, 2018, courtesy of Sergio Boscaino via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The demise of American offshore wind

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What Is An Endangered Species? | Earth Wise

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