President Donald Trump has repeatedly framed his efforts to kill offshore wind as a move to save whales.
Now, his administration is poised to green light a fossil fuel project that threatens an Alaskan whale species at risk of extinction.
Trump has touted the $44 billion Alaska project, which would include a liquefied natural gas export terminal and an 800-mile pipeline across the state. To build it, developers need permits to harass and disrupt the breeding cycle of the Cook Inlet beluga whale, an endangered whale with an estimated population of 330 that is protected under federal law.
It’s the same type of marine mammal disruption that Trump and his administration falsely claim is killing whales on the East Coast as developers build wind turbines. NOAA is proposing to issue to Alaska LNG developers an authorization for so-called Level A or Level B harassment, which runs the gamut of annoying a marine animal to disrupting their feeding and migration.
