In Delaware, the Caesar Rodney Institute has a low profile.
The Glasgow-based public policy group that calls itself nonpartisan gets some notice for its op-ed pieces and has influence in Republican Party circles. Still, in a state controlled by Democrats, it often escapes notice. A recent exception is its involvement in the 2035 electric vehicle debate.
That isn’t the case in neighboring New Jersey after CRI took its crusade against offshore wind projects across the river.
The Delaware group has cited high costs, obstructed ocean views, and a threat to endangered whales in opposing offshore wind project.
When whales washed up on shore in New Jersey, groups supported by CRi linked the deaths to preliminary work on offshore wind turbines. Wind power supporters cried foul and noted that there was no evidence that the deaths had anything to do with wind projects. Many of the giant mammals were found to be victims of boat strikes.
It led to a controversy going to the Fox News cable network, drawing a rebuke from the left-leaning Media Matters in February. The site claimed fossil fuel interests fund offshore wind opposition.
Then the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters Executive Director Ed Potosnak accused the CRI of running a “misinformation campaign” against the offshore wind. He cited a report from Rhode Island’s Brown University that mentioned the institute.
This week, CRI fired back in an email/web message pointing out that the New Jersey group receives donations from wind power developers.
CRI says members fund its initiatives. The most recent 2020 report with the IRS shows the group is hardly a fund-raising powerhouse with a modest $358,000 in revenue.
In its message, CRI defended its actions by noting that its involvement began with word that windpower projects were being developed off the coasts of Delaware and Maryland, with Fenwick Island residents concerned about their impact with the formation of something known as Save Our Beach View.
As for venturing over to New Jersey, CRI says it received inquiries from others along the East Coast worried about offshore wind projects being developed by European interests. It has gone on to be part of efforts to halt wind projects in New England.
Interestingly enough, David Stevenson, a long-time critic of Delaware climate policies, who has led the organization’s wide-ranging offshore wind efforts, was not mentioned in the CRI rebuttal.
The CRI post concluded with the following, “We represent a community of citizens who ask, is ‘offshore wind’ the key component to combating warming temperatures? Our research is not alone in indicating that offshore wind farms are proven to be an expensive and unreliable alternative source. Let’s collectively work together, look at carbon capture, advanced nuclear power, and other technologies, and stop using ad hominem attacks against one another.
The question remains whether the Caesar Rodney Institute strayed too far from its relatively genteel home turf and now finds itself in a Jersey street fight. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.
