Trump’s claim that wind turbines kill whales has no scientific basis, yet his administration is pushing broad anti-wind policy

The Trump administration has repeatedly blamed offshore wind farms for whale deaths, contrary to scientific evidence. Now the administration is quietly abandoning key research programs meant to protect marine mammals living in an increasingly busy ocean.

The New England Aquarium and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, both in Boston, received word from Interior Department officials last month stating that the department was terminating funds for research to help protect whale populations, effective immediately. The cut halted a 14-year-old whale survey program that the aquarium staff had been carrying out from small airplanes piloted over a swath of ocean where three wind farms — Vineyard Wind 1, Sunrise Wind, and Revolution Wind — are now being built.

Federal officials did not publicly announce the cancellation of funds. In a statement to Canary Media, a spokesperson for the New England Aquarium confirmed the clawback, saying that a letter from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management dated Sept. 10 had ​“terminated the remaining funds on a multi-year $1,497,453 grant, which totaled $489,068.”

The aquarium is currently hosting the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, a network of scientists that study one of the many large whale species that reside in New England’s waters. News of the cut to the aquarium’s research project has dampened the mood there. And rumors have been circulating among attendees about rollbacks to an even larger research program, a public-private partnership led by BOEM that tracks whales near wind farm sites from New England to Virginia.

Government emails obtained by Canary Media indicate that BOEM is indeed shutting down the Partnership for an Offshore Wind Energy Regional Observation Network (POWERON). Launched last year, the program expanded on a $5.8 million effort made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, deploying a network of underwater listening devices along the East Coast ​“to study the potential impacts of offshore wind facility operations on baleen whales,” referring to the large marine mammals that feed on small krill.

POWERON is a $4.7 million collaboration, still in its infancy, in which wind farm developers pay BOEM to manage the long-term acoustic monitoring for whales that’s required under project permits. One completed wind farm, South Fork Wind, and two in-progress projects, Revolution Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, currently rely on POWERON to fulfill their whale-protecting obligations.

With POWERON poised to end, wind developers must quickly find third parties to do the work. Otherwise, they risk being out of compliance with multiple U.S. laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. Dominion Energy, one of the wind developers participating in POWERON, did not respond to a request for comment.

BOEM officials made no public announcement of POWERON’s cancellation and, according to internal emails, encouraged staffers not to put the news in writing.

“It essentially ended,” said a career employee at the Interior Department who was granted anonymity to speak freely for fear of retribution. The staffer described the government’s multimillion-dollar whale-monitoring partnership as ​“a body without a pulse.”

Using whales as a pawn in the war on renewables

The grim news of cuts coincided with the release of some good news. On Tuesday, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium published a new population estimate for the North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species pushed to the brink of extinction by 18^th-century whaling. After dropping to an all-time low of just 358 whales in 2020, the species, scientists believe, has now grown to 384 individuals.

Concern for the whale’s plight has been weaponized in recent years by anti–offshore wind groups, members of Congress, and even President Donald Trump in an effort to undermine the wind farms in federal court as well as in the court of public opinion.

“If you’re into whales … you don’t want windmills,” said Trump, moments after signing an executive order in January that froze federal permitting and new leasing for offshore wind farms.

This view stands in stark contrast with conclusions made by the federal agency tasked with investigating the causes of recent whale groundings.

A statement posted on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website reads: ​“At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths. There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities.”

Climate change has made it difficult for researchers to discern the impacts of wind turbines on whales’ food supply. A government-commissioned report released by the National Academies in 2023 concluded that the impacts of New England’s offshore wind farms on the North Atlantic right whale were hard to distinguish from the effects of a warming world.

For much of the past month, since the aquarium got word of its funding being cut, its researchers have not been able to conduct whale-spotting flights. During this time, construction on Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind in the southern New England wind energy area plowed forward.

Developers are required to have dedicated observers keeping watch for marine mammals from all construction and survey vessels. But, when it comes to spotting elusive leviathans, nothing quite beats a birds-eye view. The aquarium’s work surveying whales is important for several reasons, according to Erin Meyer-Gutbrod, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, who called the clawback ​“disappointing.”

The project has generated America’s longest-running dataset tracking whale movements near planned and active wind farm areas, she said.

The aquarium’s aerial monitoring dates back to 2011, when the footprints of today’s wind projects were first being sketched out. Historically, North Atlantic right whales were known to feed near southern New England during the winter and spring seasons. In 2022, the aquarium’s dataset allowed researchers to make a remarkable discovery: Unlike in most places on the East Coast, a small number of whales were appearing there year-round. The scientists believe that warmer waters driven by climate change have made the area an ​“increasingly important habitat” for these whales.

Meyer-Gutbrod said the species’ newly established presence should be a reason for the government to better scrutinize wind farm plans and adapt construction activities.

“Monitoring in and around the lease sites is critical for characterizing right whale distribution. The whales often have seasonal patterns of habitat use, but these patterns are changing. We can’t rely exclusively on historical surveys to guide future offshore development projects,” said Meyer-Gutbrod.

She stressed the importance of continued monitoring to better understand the well-documented hazards to these whales — vessel strikes and rope entanglement from fishing activities — which carry on along the margins of New England’s wind farms. Life-threatening entanglement has been documented in the zone long monitored by aquarium staff. For example, in 2018, aerial researchers were the first to identify that a male right whale, known to scientists as #2310, was caught in fishing rope. A rescue team was unsuccessful at dislodging the rope.

The Interior Department’s cuts come at a time when its own leader is expressing concern for whale populations.

“I’ve got save-the-whale folks saying, ​‘Why do you have 192 whale groundings on the beaches of New England?’’” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, at an event on Monday hosted by the American Petroleum Institute. He said he was paying attention to people claiming that humpbacks, rights, and other whale species started stranding en masse when ​“we started building these things,” referring to turbines.

No evidence supports these claims. In fact, Tuesday’s news that the North Atlantic right whale population grew by about 2% from 2023 to 2024 may be the strongest rebuke of Burgum’s statements. That time period coincided with the busiest time for U.S. offshore wind farm construction to date.

Since 2017, the imperiled whale has in fact experienced an annual ​“unusual mortality event.” Between 10 and 35 whales have shown up dead or seriously injured each year, many displaying injuries consistent with a boat strike. Vineyard Wind 1, America’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm to get underway, didn’t start at-sea construction until 2022.

Remarkably, there’s been no right whale deaths documented in 2025 — even as five massive wind projects press on with construction in their home range. Heather Pettis, a scientist with the New England Aquarium, attributed this milestone to ongoing ​“management and conservation efforts,” which include the kind of close monitoring just scuttled by federal cuts.

The aquarium’s spokesperson told Canary Media that its aerial survey team conducted a flight over the southern New England wind energy area on Saturday ​“using other funding.” It’s unclear how long the program can survive without federal support.

On Monday, an aquarium staffer emailed a group of external scientists, welcoming ​“any suggestions that you might have for how to continue these surveys.”

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/trump-interior-defunds-whale-research