Comedian Jim Breuer and NJ Senator Mike Testa joined forces to stop Big Wind
old news that's new to me...
Yesterday, I explored some bad math from Big Wind.
The Deceptive and Destructive Power of BigWind
Remember the environment? Like the actual environment we set out to protect?
But of course there’s more. (There’s always more.)
Today, I watched a Breuniverse documentary that brought the issue very close to home. Jim Breuer and Senator Mike Testa walk us through a familiar playbook as they bring us into local New Jersey communities that will be profoundly impacted the Big Wind grift.
It’s eye opening.
Spoiler alert: Experts don’t know what’s causing whales and dolphins to die, but it’s definitely not the turbines. Trust the experts.
Testa: We know for a fact that if this were offshore drilling for oil, and one whale were to wash up, you would have the Sierra Club and Greenpeace holding hands around that whale carcass, singing kum ba ya. But when it’s a big Danish corporation that says “we’re green energy,'“ nobody’s doing those things. So why are we propping them up? At what expense? Our shoreline? Our commercial fisheries? Our recreational fisheries? Our tourist industry?
Mike Testa: Growing up as a kid of the 80s… Greenpeace, I still remember the commercials… We have to save the whales. We have to save the whales. Where’s Greenpeace today? Where is the Audobon Society?
Jim Breuer: Where are they?
Testa: Well, we’ve actually looked into that. They’ve received a ton of donations…
Breuer: You mean they took donations from the windmill people? Come on…
What kind of impact would that have?
Correlation is not causation, but…
Save Right Whales tracked more than $4.3 million in donations to environmental organizations.
As an example, Save the Right Whales said in its report, "The New England Aquarium received a donation pledge of $250,000 in 2018 from Bay State Wind. In 2019, Vineyard Wind donated an undisclosed amount to the Aquarium. In 2020, Equinor also donated an undisclosed amount. The Aquarium has supported offshore wind since at least 2021."
Another example cited is, "In August 2020, the National Audubon Society received a $200,000 grant from the New England Forest and Rivers Fund, a granting organization that takes money from the Avangrid Foundation, which is part of Avangrid Renewables. The National Audubon Society has supported offshore wind since at least 2010."
And Save the Right Whales cited, "The World Wildlife Fund received a sponsorship grant of undisclosed value from Ørsted in 2019. The World Wildlife Fund has supported offshore wind since at least 2021."
…"Through our research, we identified 36 separate examples of donations constituting a conflict of interest. Conservatively estimated, wind companies and foundations that receive wind company money have donated nearly $4.3 million to environmental organizations. This does not include 16 donations of undisclosed value, or pledges whose status we were unable to confirm. Of this total, $1.1 million coming from Avangrid and Shell were passed through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation before being distributed to specific groups."
Of course there’s a literal Shell game.
Breuer’s documentary is worth a watch. People who really care about nature, the environment, communities and truth have been doing their homework.
There’s a method to the madness. Let’s stop it. On all fronts.