https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1699564637195497818?s=20
Click on the images for the full views. Correlation is still not causation, but the standard industry, utility and Biden Administration line “there is no evidence” is getting thin. Virginia Beach, here it comes.
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If that whale had been found next to an oil drilling rig, you know for darn sure environmentalists would be blaming the oil rig and demanding to shut it down.
Oil rig versus the turbine base, hmm?
Analogy. If I find a dead deer on the road shoulder, I’m more inclined to believe he was killed by a passing vehicle than that he ran into a sign post.
During drilling operations, offshore oil rigs do not move any more than wind turbine bases do – and they don’t move under their own power in any event.
If a wind turbine is a ‘signpost’, then so is an oil rig.
Shocking! Just freaking SHOCKING that the usual climate deniers blame wind for dead whales… it all “kinda fits” in a way!…
😉
No drilling, no oil and gas production offshore US East Coast.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e4959693f8df0ae67511ac81e8b7be6e1e2f0bca6ed7b73983c0eca393cc8bf.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e4959693f8df0ae67511ac81e8b7be6e1e2f0bca6ed7b73983c0eca393cc8bf.png
Isn’t this a substation and not a turbine?
Part of the same project./
The pile driving ended on June 22. Until now, that was the construction phase that was the issue.
Of course, now the greatly reduced sound phase has become the issue.
Horizontal drilling for the sea to shore transition is not without sound and vibration. A quick search turned up an old report of 115-103 A-weighted decibels for entry and exit measurements. What impact the equipment used will have, whether there is any un planned release of drilling fluids, whether supports will need to be driven for the pipes going to the surface for fluid removal…lots of questions about impact on marine mammals–. NO quick answers. https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/renewable-energy/state-activities/SFWF%20FEIS.pdf
Exec Summary, Table ES1, Marine Mammals — Negligible to moderate impacts, as well as minor beneficial impacts from construction and installation, O&M, and conceptual decommissioning activities, varying by species. Overall cumulative adverse impacts would be moderate adverse and minor to moderate beneficial.
Unless you want to dig in the weeds. This is just about the best statement for the layman.
Yeah. That’s the usual, nothing here to see, move along statement. Too late tonight to dig out the details, but the description of cofferdams and debris, not even considering the noise and equipment to drill and run 24 inch cable, is not going to be good for the whales, especially during migration. We may be witnessing the extinction set up for the North Atlantic Right Whale.
Aka, boilerplate. But, it’s the document. It’s what we have.
Nevertheless, having had an office next to the construction site of a 14 story building, I’m qualified to say the worst part was the pile driving. That’s over.
Yep, there just might be an extinction in the offing. It might not be the whales though.
Would you believe that statement about an “oil rig farm”?
And, do you have any idea what the “minor to moderate” beneficial impact might be to the whales? That one has me stumped.
Humans leaving them alone altogether would be the most beneficial thing we could do for them, but we’ve been way beyond that for a couple of thousand years.
“Respect you in the morning? I don’t respect you NOW!”
I don’t necessarily believe this one, but as clever as we all are, I cannot refute it and would be unlikely to accept a non-expert opinion without lots and lots of data to the contrary.
Beneficial? No fish pounds? Those are really whale killers.
manmade structures are claimed to attract critters. Smaller critters attracted become food for larger critters, etc.
https://fishbio.com/oil-rigs-critical-fish-habitat-or-environmental-liability/#:~:text=However%2C%20studies%20suggest%20these%20structures,(more%20than%20200%20m).
It’s not just a claim. Manmade structures do attract critters.
Have you ever fished near the pilings or tunnel islands on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, or at the bridge pilings?
https://fishtalkmag.com/blog/jigging-chesapeake-bay-bridge-pilings
Oh I agree. Even oil platforms attract critters. and so would turbines, right?
That is most definitely true. The Challenger pieces became homes for fish within weeks of landing on the bottom.
CVA-34. Dad’s last tour of sea duty. Teak decks, ya know. Those hooks used to tear ‘em like crazy. I think it was the first angle deck coming out of refit before the first actually designed flight deck.
had no idea it was your Dad’s tour! Any idea why after they did that, most ships are still scrapped and not sunk for more “reefs”?
She was supposed to be sold for razor blades. Deal fell through. As it is, a good deal for all.
It’s possible that after decommissioning and stripping, it may not have been capable of the tow to the breakers, usually in India.
Seriously? A dead whale. In the ocean?
Better crop the photo. That one on the LHS sure looks like an oil rig, and Trump opened those waters up to drilling in 2018…
“it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.
Sure that is not the transformer platform being built? That is a similar structure to the oil and gas set ups. Nice try, though. If Shellenberger is spoofing or was fooled, I’ll be happy to turn on him.
Don’t know. Do you? Can you positively state that the platform is related to non-fossil fuel energy production?
I know only the best news is found on xitter.
And the wisest insights provided by the anonymous savants on blogs…
I can find you a dozen photos of windfarm transformer platforms built very much like that. I can’t prove what is in the photo, but that is what they look like.
And the wisest insights provided by the anonymous savants on blogs…
I can find you a dozen photos of windfarm transformer platforms built very much like that. I can’t prove what is in the photo, but that is what they look like.
Somewhat similar
https://www.dlteng.com/Images_projects/Bard/3.jpg
But then so’s this and I don’t think anyone blames this for killing whales
Trump may have opened the waters to drilling, but up in Rhode Island they are still fighting about whether it will actually occur. There’s been no oil rigs built near South Fork wind farm as of yet.
FWIW, That is indeed a turbine base for the South Fork farm. They found the whale yesterday (Sept 05) based on the posting date. All of the turbine bases were completed in June 2023. That poor whale has been floating about for two months? Unlikely.
Again, the most likely cause would be a ship strike and the photo (which you challenge) shows plenty of activity. You are throwing stuff against the wall hoping, bub. Let’s see what shakes out. My bet is NOAA ignores it.
The unrealistic and self-righteous claims of this industry that it could industrialize so much of our ocean with no serious harm to marine life were ridiculous from the start. Only idiots accepted it. How much loss of marine life will come? How much acceptable? We’ll see, but of course this had to happen. This religion practices animal sacrifice.
The most likely cause was a ship strike at this point, and if active construction is underway as the second photo indicates a strike is very plausible. This was always going to happen. The unrealistic and self-righteous industry claims of perfect safety were never credible except to True Believers. And putting 3,000 turbines in the migration path of the Atlantic Right Whale is going to force them to change their pattern or die out. Greenpeace is polling the whales now on their preference using a grant from Siemens Gamesa….
You do realize that along the approach to NYC, right? For example, the Andrea Doria isn’t far from there. Do you have any idea the number of ships and large boats passing through there? For reference, traveling N-S on a 33-ft’er in a pea soup fog is like crossing I-95 with a blindfold on. Pucker factor 95.7.
BTW, I have to qualify. Nothing dead floats in the ocean for two months without being in a suitcase (additional useful information: 1/8” proof chain min, 3 cinder blocks per bag, don’t attach to the handle, punch holes for gas escape)
Work is ongoing at South Fork. “Twelve wind turbines and a wind substation will be constructed at the site. Installation of the turbines is expected to begin later this summer and into the fall. Meanwhile, work continues at the site, including the installation of cables to connect the wind turbines to the offshore substation.” Aug 9, 2023 https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/foundations-of-south-fork-wind-farm-off-of-long-island-now-complete/
Plus 18 humpbacks have washed up as of August 11, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/08/11/30-foot-humpback-whale-washes-up-dead-on-fire-island/
Aside from whales, quite a few recent articles about reliability problems with the rush to scale-up to humongous turbine size. I have mentioned in the past that successful scale-up in size is often very difficult. Virginia wants to go “full speed ahead” to “take the lead” …but those are words of naivete for some of us with private industry project experience.
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