You wouldn’t think saving the whales would be a Trump administration priority. But, if arguing that whales in danger can block green energy development and boost fossil fuel profits, the Trump goon squad is practically clambering aboard the Sea Shepherd to save the day.
During yesterday’s truly depressing Cabinet meeting (perhaps the most unmoored from reality in White House history) Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr piped up with the observation that constructing offshore wind farms is annihilating whales:
RFK Jr claims that windmills are "wiping out the whale population" in the Atlantic pic.twitter.com/CXR7UrnmQP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025
“They have killed 160 whales in the last two years. They’re wiping out the whale population in the Atlantic. The big whales, the minkes, the gray whales or the uh, humpback whales, right whales. And you [Trump] are going to save the whales of the East Coast.”
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Kennedy is spouting absolute nonsense. There is absolutely no evidence that Atlantic wind farms have killed 160 whales in the last two years, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other marine research entities, including the Marine Mammal Commission, all underlining there’s no link between offshore wind farm activities and whale deaths.
Another Kennedy delusion
Necropsies on whale corpses washed up along the Atlantic coast indicate that the most common human-caused whale deaths are becoming tangled up in fishing gear or colliding with vessels and suffering propeller injuries. That’s been the case for decades, long before wind farms were established.
However, scientists believe warming oceans due to climate change are driving whale pods closer to shore in search of food, which brings them more frequently into busy shipping lanes and thus increases the likelihood of vessel strikes.
The truth is that Kennedy and the Trump administration do not care about whales in the slightest, but do care very much about stomping out green energy development. That viewpoint is enthusiastically supported by the lucrative fossil fuel lobby, who are overjoyed at Trump repealing green energy and anti-pollution laws, and his promotion of filthy coal-burning power plants.
If there are fewer wind farms, there must consequently be more burning of fossil fuels to make up that energy deficit. And, as much of the planet gasps for air in a sweltering global warming-induced heatwave, the fossil fuel executives will be sipping iced cocktails in their air-conditioned mansions, probably later retiring to dinner to snack on some delicious whale sashimi.
