“..during moments of great possibility, the roar of disinformation is at its loudest.”

--Geoff Dembicki, The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change

Local groups opposing offshore wind do not exist in a vacuum, and to understand their assertions it is important to place their actions in the broader context. These local groups include many passionate people who are worried wind energy will cause disastrous ecological impacts. They cite many reasons they oppose wind near them, but they often are unaware of the interests behind the information they are receiving, which is often exaggerated and unsupported by evidence. They circulate talking points which are rooted in falsehoods, and sometimes shared by law­yers, lobbyists, advisors and donors. Some core members of this network have received funding from the fossil fuel industry. If not direct aid, many local groups are receiving an “in­formation subsidy” from these groups. This site seeks to provide informed responses to issues that we’ve seen raised by these groups, because they are so corrosive to a rational response by our nation to climate change.

The recent rise of many apparently local anti-offshore wind groups is not merely a spontaneous or grassroots phenomenon, but was carefully planned more than a decade ago. The current rise of anti-wind groups can be traced back to 2012, when lawyer Richard Porter and John Droz, a Fellow at the far-Right American Tradition Institute, which was connected to oil and gas funding, laid out a plan to defeat or slow the deployment of renewable energy. They proposed to “cause subversion in message of [the wind] industry so that it effectively becomes so bad no one wants to admit they are for it.” A core part of their group’s strategy was to “"Create a grass-roots ground swell from which the clamor for change will reach the elected officials and policy-makers." From the 2012 memo:

In 2023, local groups are echoing arguments employed by organizations in the anti-renewable policy sphere on the national stage, such the Heartland Foundation and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a Texas-based think tank financed in part by the oil and gas industry. Both spread tactics and highly nega­tive and distorted information to block wind projects. The use of scare tactics and claims unsupported by evidence nor the majority of scientists or major conservation groups suggests that local groups are in a “marriage of convenience” with fossil-funded national groups, to protect their own area from the uncertainty of change that is coming with the adoption of this large-scale solution to the climate change crisis. 

The danger is that the anxieties of local people are being cynically used by the fossil fuel industry to continue its business, which is incompatible with a stable climate. As David Stevenson, Director of the right-wing Delaware-based Caesar Rodney Institute and a leader of opposition to wind put it, rotting carcasses of beached whales work to galvanize opposition to offshore wind. Stevenson admitted "If an emotional response is what it takes...I'm not going to turn them down." Stevenson and CRI created benign-sounding “Save Our Beach View,” “Protect Our Coast NJ,” and the network American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP), and sent letters to 35,000 coastal property owners soliciting their opposition and donations.  CRI has received funding from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a Koch-created  family organization, and is reported to have ties to Exxon, Chevron and Marathon Oil.   ACOP now has groups in every state from Maine to North Carolina, with a goal of delaying or stopping offshore wind. Local and national media coverage of these groups usually fails to mention the legal and informational support these groups are receiving from fossil-fuel front groups like ACOP, CRI and TPPF. 

This larger context is fundamental to understanding the nature and strategy behind their efforts, and the greater impact they are having on our ability as a nation to make the transition off fossil fuels that we know is needed to stop climate disaster.