Former President Donald Trump recently gave a speech in Summerville, South Carolina, in which he vowed to overturn President Joe Biden’s environmentally-friendly energy policies. He expressed his intent to restart oil drilling as a means to achieve energy self-sufficiency. Trump also voiced his disapproval of the current administration’s management of offshore areas, attributing whale fatalities to wind farms and objecting to boat speed limitations.
Trump strongly criticized the Biden administration for proposing a 10-knot speed limit for boats along the South Carolina coast, arguing that higher speeds were necessary to effectively avoid collisions with whales. He likened the speed limit to that of a leisurely golf cart and asserted that the chances of a boater encountering lightning were greater than the likelihood of colliding with a whale while navigating the offshore area.
He firmly asserted that the speed recommendation by the Biden administration was misguided, expressing concern that it would have detrimental effects on South Carolina’s fishing industry and erode local customs. Trump pledged that if re-elected, he would promptly reverse the 10-knot limit in the waters around South Carolina.
During his speech on September 25, Trump emphasized that only one whale had perished in the past half-century due to a boat collision off the South Carolina coast. He contended that wind turbines, rather than boats, were responsible for these deaths. According to the former president, offshore windmills were causing distress to the animals, prompting them to swim closer to the shore in unprecedented numbers.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) holds a differing viewpoint, although they do acknowledge an increase in whale fatalities. Their data indicates that approximately 40% of the examined whale carcasses displayed signs of entanglement in fishing gear or collisions with boats.
The remaining causes of death included starvation, parasitic diseases, and undetermined factors. NOAA suggests that global warming and commercial fishing, which draw the whales’ prey closer to boats, are among the most significant threats to these marine mammals.
Trump made a commitment that if he were to be re-elected, he would strive to achieve the lowest energy costs in the industrialized world for the United States. He projected that this goal could be realized within a relatively short period of six months, although he acknowledged that it would necessitate a substantial increase in drilling activities to accomplish.
