On January 30th, 2023, twelve New Jersey mayors and one congressman signed a letter calling for an immediate moratorium on offshore wind activity. The signatories purport that offshore wind power could be the cause of recent whale deaths along the Atlantic shoreline. However, the Cape Cod Times reports that according to scientists and whale advocacy groups, there is no known link between whale strandings and offshore wind.
Instead, experts say that offshore wind opponents may be using disinformation surrounding whale deaths to garner more support. Leah Stokes, professor of political science at the University of Santa Barbara, notes that this tactic has grown in popularity over the past several years; opponents of a project will misrepresent otherwise legitimate environmental concerns to sway members of the environmental movement to their side. A moratorium in New Jersey has yet to be granted, but lawsuits in other states have successfully suspended offshore wind construction.