What happened?
Seven dead whales have washed up on the New York-New Jersey coastline since December, prompting calls for Gov. Phil Murphy (D., N.J.) to halt development on a number of offshore wind farms in the area. He refused.
"No, I don’t think so," Murphy said last week when asked if developers should stop pre-construction of wind turbines, which some whale-lovers have blamed for the spate of deaths.
How did they die?
We don't know. State and federal agencies are investigating the deaths, but pro-whale organizations have expressed concern that pre-construction activity, specifically use of sonar to map the ocean floor, is traumatizing the whales and other marine life in the area.
What they're saying:
"Stop all of the sonar, stop all of the pre-construction activity offshore right now, until we can determine whether or not that has had any impact or any part of the cause for all these whales washing up," said Cindy Zipf, executive director of the environmentalist group Clean Ocean Action.
Context:
Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive, signed an executive order in September boosting the state's goal for offshore wind production by nearly 50 percent to 11,000 megawatts by 2040. He wants to run for president, but he'll never win.
Big picture:
Following the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, the Democratic Party declared war on innocent animals that stood in the way of their radical green energy agenda. Obama presided over the brutal murder of millions of majestic birds, including bald and golden eagles. Some were shredded to death by turbine blades, while others were incinerated while flying over massive solar farms that produced rays of reflected light that can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Obama administration routinely granted waivers to renewable energy firms to exempt them from the legal consequences of killing bald eagles and other protected species. Murphy's refusal to let a few dead whales derail his efforts to turn the New Jersey coastline into a bird graveyard by constructing massive wind farms is in keeping with his party's antagonistic stance toward the animal kingdom.
In loving memory:
• Infant sperm whale (Keansburg, Dec. 5)
• Humpback whale (Amagansett, Dec. 6)
• Juvenile humpback (Strathmere Beach, Dec. 10)
• Female sperm whale (Rockaway Beach, Dec. 12)
• Female humpback whale (Atlantic City, Dec. 23)
• Female humpback whale (Atlantic City, Jan. 7)
• Sub-adult humpback whale (Brigantine, Jan. 13)
