Don't Be Fooled By Disinformation About Offshore Wind

There is a deliberate, well-funded campaign to distort the truth about global warming and its impact on our coastal communities. It is funded by the fossil fuel industry. They hope you will never know about it but it’s there and it’s $72 million big. They will do and say anything to get you to believe that wind turbines and their cable connections to the grid are bad for you and the environment. Does this sound familiar? It should, because the fossil fuel guys took a page from the tobacco industry’s playbook that tried to convince the American public that smoking was actually good for you. They sponsored fake studies that allegedly proved smoking was not harmful to human health even though their own studies had confirmed the health risk associated with smoking cigarettes.

A new study by The Brown University Climate and Development Lab produced a well-documented report titled, “Against the Wind, A Map of the Anti-Offshore Wind Network in the Eastern United States,” showing the extensive network with over 50 organizations to feed local NIMBY groups (and fake grassroots groups called Astroturf) with propaganda and misinformation used to justify their offshore wind opposition before local boards.

Never before in my life have I seen (and I saw a lot in 10 years on Beacon Hill) such an outlandishly deliberate effort to distort the truth. It’s an effort to subvert the common good along with the future of our children and our planet. Why would someone do this? They do it for all the riches the fossil fuel industry can provide. They do it for about $72 million in payoffs.

The people who take this money don’t believe in what science is telling us about global warming nor do they believe their own eyes when they see coastal flooding, hurricanes, drought and tornadoes sweeping across the country. If they do believe climate change is real, they just figure they will be rich enough to survive the worst it can do.

A good example of the fossil fuel industry’s strategy memo written by one of their consultants said that they will reverse the renewable offshore wind message to a point where it becomes, “…so bad no one wants to admit in public they are for it…by turning green to black and clean to dirty.” (The report can be found at www.climatedevlab.brown.edu/anti-offshorewindnetwork).

The Brown University researchers also have a site responding to several anti-offshore wind claims (www.RealOffshoreWind.org). In it, noted scientists respond to questions like: Will offshore wind kill whales? Will it harm birds? Will you be able to see the lights on wind turbines at night? Will offshore wind actually reduce emissions? Are the cables dangerous to humans or marine species?

If you are concerned about how climate disruption will impact the future of your children and grandchildren, then you owe yourself a few moments to look into the Brown research with an open mind. If you are an elected official in Falmouth, you should read both documents carefully. Don’t become easy prey for the guys who make a fortune pumping oil, mining coal or drilling and fracking for natural gas.

Offshore wind is the world’s ticket to reasonably affordable renewable electricity that we absolutely must have to slow down climate change so our children and their children will have a livable world. Don’t take my word for it. Please take the time to read what the scientists say.

Matthew Patrick served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2000 through 2010 and led the effort to save 360 acres of the Quashnet River valley from development. Currently retired, he lives in Waquoit.