One of the many lessons of COVID is that we can’t trust government scientists. Their findings must be viewed with healthy skepticism. They have proven to be more than willing to say whatever the people paying them want them to say and being more than willing to lie to advance a political or societal agenda. Are the right? Maybe. Check the data.

Since December, more than 23 whales have washed up dead along the east coast of the United States, leading wind energy skeptics to lay blame on the pending installation of offshore wind projects. But some scientists with the federal government say that there is no evidence to support those claims.

 

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Federal agencies that track whale populations and the threats to them have reached a different conclusion, noting that the increase in whale deaths predates offshore wind leasing and is attributable to other causes, such as collisions with ships.

 

“To date, no whale mortality has been attributed to offshore wind activities,” Lauren Gaches, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, said in a late January media teleconference. On Feb. 21, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission provided an update, reiterating that “despite several reports in the media, there is no evidence to link these strandings to offshore wind energy development.”