The executive director and general counsel of the conservative Austin, Texas, think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation said plans to put wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico would do more harm than good.
Robert Henneke said in a newsletter that massive wind turbines in the Gulf “would do none of the things that proponents promise.”
“But it would bring environmental harms, danger to humans and wildlife alike, and double down on unreliable energy. It would also enrich the foreign companies that dominate offshore wind in the U.S.,” Henneke said in the newsletter.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) designated two sections of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for offshore wind development, the agency announced Oct. 31 on its website.
BOEM reports the first WEA, approximately 24 nautical miles (nm) off the coast of Galveston, totals 508,265 acres and "has the potential to power 2.1 million homes with clean wind energy," the agency states in the announcement. The second WEA, approximately 56 nm off the coast of Lake Charles, La., totals 174,275 acres and "has the potential to power over 740,000 homes."
"This growing industry will provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create thousands of good-paying jobs, and invest billions in new American energy supply chains, manufacturing, shipbuilding and servicing," BOEM stated, according to reporting by MarineLink.
MarineLink reports that BOEM states it "uses its renewable energy competitive leasing process to identify the offshore locations that appear most suitable for development, taking into consideration potential impacts to resources and ocean users.
"BOEM collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to build an ocean model that analyzed the entire Gulf of Mexico ecosystem to find areas that have the least conflict with other uses and the lowest environmental impact," BOEM stated, according to MarineLink.
While Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has been working towards this development for at least two years, Texas officials are less than enthusiastic, RealClear Energy reported.
Edwards announced two years ago that his new Climate Initiatives Task Force would work with the BOEM to create “a task force to build a blueprint for renewable energy production in the Gulf of Mexico,” RealClear Energy said.
But Texas State Rep. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) wrote in a letter regarding the BOEM announcement that renewable energy is unreliable, pointing to onshore wind farms that froze in February 2021 during a winter storm, RealClear Energy stated.
“There are grave concerns about the serious harm that the proposed leases could have on the commercial and residential fishing industry, the maritime economy, the human environment, and Texas’ economic prosperity that need to be resolved before any lease should even be considered,” RealClear Energy reported Middleton’s letter stated.
RealClear Energy reported Middleton as saying that BOEM's failure to prepare an environmental impact statement “likely violated federal law.” In addition, Middleton said the development could cost the Port of Houston an annual $802 billion due to its impact on shipping lanes.
Henneke said in a commentary originally published by The Hill that Winter Storm Uri demonstrated to Texans that the state needs to bolster its electric grid's reliability, but relying more heavily on wind power would do the opposite.
Henneke, who was a twice-elected Kerr County Attorney and assistant attorney general under Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, said that while approximately one-third of the state's electric generation capacity is comprised of wind and solar, neither energy source performed well during Winter Storm Uri. He also refuted claims from then-gubernatorial hopeful Beto O'Rourke that offshore wind would boost Texas' energy independence, pointing out that some critical components of wind turbines come almost exclusively from China.
Critics said that wind turbines kill over one million birds yearly in the U.S., The Texan reported. Others said that during a hurricane, the turbines could become debris.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a letter to BOEM that “the buffer between the wind site and artificial reefs” in the Gulf should be taken into consideration.
“Artificial reefs should be provided a 1.0 [nautical-mile] protective buffer to avoid and minimize impacts to sensitive benthic communities that would result from pre-construction surveys as well as construction and decommissioning of the project,” The Texan reported that the letter said.
