No, Wind Farms Aren’t ‘Driving Whales Crazy’

Currently, two thirds of global battery cell production is in China, according to the International Energy Agency. The United States accounts for just 10 percent. China also dominates the processing of minerals required for electric vehicle batteries. The Biden administration says that will change over time as battery manufacturing with a domestic supply chain is established in the United States thanks to federal incentives.

WHAT WAS SAID:

“The windmills aren’t working, the most expensive form of energy ever.”

— Donald J. Trump at the event in North Charleston, S.C.

This is false. Mr. Trump has never hidden his animosity for windmills. He has claimed they cause cancer (they don’t), are “driving whales crazy” (no evidence of that) and spew “tremendous fumes” when they are constructed. (That’s also not accurate. According to the Energy Department, the carbon footprint of coal-fired power is nearly 90 percent greater than that of wind energy.)

Wind and solar can generate electricity more inexpensively than any other type of power plant, even without subsidies, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, the agency and other energy experts note that these estimates do not take into account other costs like the need for transmission or backup power.

It’s not clear where the claim that windmills “aren’t working” comes from. They work. According to the Department of Energy, wind is the largest source of renewable electricity generation in the United States, accounting for about 10 percent of electricity.

And in South Carolina, where Mr. Trump made the remarks, nearly 2,000 people are employed in the wind industry. Nationwide more than 120,000 Americans work in wind, according to the Department of Energy, and the industry saw a 4.4 percent rise in jobs last year over 2022.

On the other hand, it’s been a bad several months for offshore wind. Developers have canceled several large projects across the East Coast, and some big developers like Orsted are shedding jobs. That has largely been because of supply-chain woes, inflation, and soaring interest rates.