Beyond dark money: Information subsidies and complex networks of opposition to offshore wind on the U.S. East Coast

Abstract

A new, more aggressive stage of opposition to offshore wind energy has arisen in the United States. In this article, we demonstrate how the discourses and strategies of local opposition groups are influenced by relationships with national-level groups and fossil fuel interests. East Coast offshore wind opposition groups are not well-characterized by the previous literature on local renewables acceptance – which describes them as grassroots – nor the top-down depiction of national-level fossil fuel influence, which portrays them as inorganic “astroturf” organizations. We focus on organizations' networks and discourses. First, we map the network of opposition to offshore wind on the U.S. East Coast, which includes novel, local anti-turbine groups, known climate denial think tanks, fossil fuel interests, law firms, and representatives of the commercial fishing industry. Second, we assess claims made by an anti-offshore wind group in New England using two academic typologies. We discover that local groups receive massive and varied “information subsidies” from the think tanks, allowing them to spread numerous claims emphasizing the downsides of offshore wind. We conclude with a discussion of how this nascent network and these misleading discourses pose dire threats to renewable energy development in the United States.