Offshore Wind Power Poses Only Limited Risk to Whales, Government Watchdog Report Finds

CLIMATEWIRE | Two years ago, Republican lawmakers asked Congress’ watchdog to scrutinize offshore wind’s impact on commercial fishing, marine navigation and wildlife.

What they got was a report recommending the government improve coordination with Native American tribes and open a new office overseeing offshore wind development in the Northeast.

The report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office was requested by a quartet of anti-wind lawmakers in 2023, who had accused the Biden administration of overlooking the impact of wind development on national security, commercial fishing and wildlife. They have sought to paint offshore wind as a whale killer that snarls shipping lanes and hamstrings national security.

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The 68-page investigation, which comes amid President Donald Trump’s pledge to shut down the industry, paints a different picture.

It makes a nod to concerns of fishermen that their input is received too late in the federal permitting process, recommending that regulators take additional steps to demonstrate how they incorporate fishermen’s feedback into their decisions. And it reprises federal research on turbine’s impact to marine radar — noting how wind development can impair navigation and efforts to address the issue.

But it also reflects the scientific consensus that wind poses limited risks to whales, contrary to the popular GOP talking point.

“Wind development could bring jobs and investment to communities. At the same time, it could disrupt commercial fishing to varying degrees,” GAO wrote. “Turbines could also affect radar system performance, alter search and rescue methods, and alter historic and cultural landscapes.”

The result is a series of modest reforms needed to fill gaps in the government’s oversight of offshore wind, such as opening an office in the Northeast to help the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement better oversee the industry and address local concerns. Both bureaus are divisions of the Interior Department charged with overseeing offshore wind development.

Notably, much of the report is dedicated to a topic that Republicans did not ask GAO to investigate: coordination with Native American tribes. GAO called BOEM’s engagement with tribes “inconsistent,” writing that the bureau “has not consistently engaged in meaningful consultation with Tribes during the offshore wind energy development process as called for in directives and guidance for tribal consultation.”

Wind opponents and advocates alike said GAO’s findings validated their long held positions. The report confirmed that issues raised by offshore wind opponents “weren’t just hypothetical concerns, they were real and serious,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican who was among the lawmakers to request the study.

Hillary Bright, president of the pro-wind group Turn Forward, said the findings showed “offshore wind development should move forward with robust community engagement and strong environmental protections.”

The comments reflect the high stakes of the moment. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House ordering federal agencies to halt permits for new offshore wind projects and directing them to review existing ones.

Five projects already had entered varying degrees of construction when Trump came into office and have continued to move ahead. In recent weeks, wind opponents have ratcheted up calls for the president to stop them.

Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, wrote to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last month warning that the department needed to stop Equinor from embarking on offshore construction of its Empire Wind project off New York. When the Norwegian company moved ahead with the initial phases of construction, it prompted the leader of a Long Island commercial fishing group to pen an op-ed in the New York Post last week warning of a “man-made disaster.”

The conservative activist Steven Milloy wrote in the Daily Caller that the Interior Department needed to follow through on Trump’s pledge to halt offshore wind development completely.

“President Trump campaigned on saving the whales and the rest of us from offshore wind and followed up with an Executive order,” Milloy wrote.

“Someone,” he concluded, “has got to see to their execution.”

The GAO report notes that offshore wind poses limited risk to whales, addressing a series of longstanding arguments raised by wind opponents. The radar used by offshore wind developers to probe the ocean floor to identify turbine locations is less powerful than those employed by the oil and gas industry.

Whales and other marine wildlife are also likely to vacate an area when developers begin pile driving foundations into the seabed. And noise generated by the turbines once they enter operation is likely indistinguishable to wildlife from other sounds in the ocean, GAO said.

But it also provided fodder for offshore wind opponents who seized on the report’s finding that turbines reduce the effectiveness of marine radar in military and marine applications. Smith, the New Jersey congressman, said it provided the “scientific justification” for Trump’s wind pause.

The GAO’s findings aren’t new. They were based in part on a pair of reports conducted during the Biden administration, including a 2024 study by the Energy Department and a 2022 study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. And GAO also noted the steps that agencies have taken to reduce the risks posed by wind farms. The Defense Department, for instance, has developed processes like exclusion areas and has agreements with wind developers to curtail production if needed, GAO noted.

GAO interviewed 23 people with expertise in fisheries, marine wildlife, oceanography, marine transportation and radar, among others. One expert told GAO that large shipping vessels could have difficulty avoiding turbines in the event of a mechanical failure and that smaller ships emerging from a wind farm might not be visible to larger ships radar.

The report also noted that offshore wind could have negative impacts on commercial fishermen, who have long argued that their input is considered too late in the process to have a meaningful impact on a project’s design and location.

The federal government engages in a lengthy permitting process, first accepting public comment on areas it is considering for wind development, then again when an area is leased for wind development and once again when a project submits its proposed design.

“Stakeholders remain concerned that BOEM has not adequately considered or addressed the concerns of the commercial fishing industry,” GAO wrote, adding, “it is not clear how BOEM ensures that these stakeholders are consistently included in the process and informed of BOEM’s efforts to incorporate input from the industry when establishing lease areas.”

The Interior Department and BOEM did not respond to a request for comment.

But in a letter to GAO, BOEM Deputy Director Walter Cruickshank said it concurred with GAO’s recommendations, though he said the watchdog’s proposal for a new office in the Northeast would depend on whether offshore wind development aligns with the Trump administration’s priorities.

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.