Trump: ‘Windmills driving whales and people crazy’

Bloomberg reported that shares in Vestas, Orsted and Nordex all tumbled after the comments, made in what seemed like a rambling stream of consciousness on energy policies and environmental issues, in which Trump called long-term ‘windmills’ a disaster, citing areas in Palm Springs where they were ‘rusting, rotting, closed, falling down’.

He claimed that offshore wind turbines were ‘driving the whales crazy’, and that where in Massachusetts only two of the creatures had washed ashore in 14 years, since the installation of the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm, the largest operational one in the US, 14 had succumbed in one season.

(According to Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA (WDC), six whales have washed up on Massachusetts beaches in six months, however WDC executive director Regina Asmutis-Silvia said that despite social media campaigns attributing the mortalities to offshore wind, ‘at least in our response area, there are no wind surveys or construction activities taking place’.)

“Off the coast of New Jersey they want to build 200 windmills, the people are going crazy – nobody wants them, they’re expensive and they don’t work without subsidy,” Trump continued.

“They’re 25 storeys tall, one is 70 storeys tall, the blades take three ships to ship them… and we don’t want that to happen.”

Trump did not say the plan was to dismantle existing offshore wind farms, but he did say he would ‘try and have a policy where no windmills are being built’.

“They are the most expensive energy ever,” he said. “They are many more times expensive than clean natural gas, and the only people who want them are those getting rich off them.” He promised to lower energy bills by halting the ‘green new scam’.

“You shouldn’t have to subsidise energy,” he said.

Reactions

Bloomberg reported that shares in some of Europe’s biggest wind power companies fell after the speech.

“Shares of Danish turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems fell as much as 5.3% Wednesday, while offshore wind developer Orsted dropped more than 5% to the lowest level in over a year,” it said. “German turbine maker Nordex SE fell as much as 4.9%.”

Reacting to the speech, Democratic-NPL Chair Adam Goldwyn, in North Dakota, which has several operational wind farms, said Trump was putting livelihoods at risk.

“Wind is the second largest electricity-generating source in North Dakota,” he said. “Wind turbine service technician is the fastest growing job in the United States, and North Dakota has the most wind energy-related jobs per capita in the country.”

In the UK, the BBC quoted Hull City Council leader Mike Ross, who invited Trump to visit the Humber Offshore Wind Cluster, which is home to eight operational offshore wind farms, including the Hornsea 1 farm that covers an area more than five times the size of the city of Hull.

Just three days before his speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump had taken to his social media platform ‘Truth Social’ to criticise the UK government’s recent decision to ban new oil exploitation.

“The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!” he said.

Biden inititatives

Donald Trump’s comments came a day after sitting US president Joe Biden announced the banning of offshore oil and gas drilling in vast areas off the coast of the US, which Trump pledged to reverse immediately.

The speech also follows the publication in December of an action plan targeting net-zero emissions in the US maritime sector by 2050.

Transforming Maritime Energy: US Action Plan Targets Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 has been spearheaded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and other federal agencies, and contains a wide range of aims to curb emissions in a sector that it says is responsible for 4% of total emissions.

One of the key targets is to ‘transition to a new sert of low-GHG fuels’, naming ammonia and methanol for ocean-going vessels and electrification and fuel cell technology for smaller vessels ‘where feasible’.

The paper also says there will be a move towards hybridization of vessels, and that several projects will be put in place to build full battery-electric offshore support vessels.

“Decarbonizing the electric grid by 2035, largely through new solar and wind energy development, will be a critical strategy to support transportation decarbonization,” it says.

Among other bizarre statements yesterday coming from the president-elect, who is due to be inaugurated on January 20, he vowed to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, calling it ‘a beautiful name’.