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AGAINST
THE WIND
BROWN UNIVERSITY CLIMATE
AND DEVELOPMENT LAB
A Map of the Anti-Offshore
Wind Network in the Eastern
United States
DECEMBER 2023
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Acknowledgements
Map of the Anti-Offshore Wind Network
Executive Summary
Introduction
The Map
Key
Network Structure
Origin of a Network
Money Flows
The Donors
The Recipients and their Roles
Information Flows
Conclusion
Endnotes
CONTENTS
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Figure 1: Map of the Anti-Offshore Wind Network.
Figure 2: Between the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Responsible
Offshore Development Alliance.
Figure 3: Schematic diagram of donor influence in the anti-offshore wind
network.
Figure 4: Lisa Linowes in the anti-offshore wind network.
Figure 5: David Stevenson and the Caesar Rodney Institute are central to
the anti-offshore wind network.
Figure 6: Table of contributions from fossil fuel interests and dark money
groups to organizations in the anti-offshore wind network.
FIGURES
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report was written and published by Isaac Slevin, William Kattrup, and Timmons Roberts
About the Climate and Development Lab: Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab
(CDL) is a student-faculty think tank based at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society,
and was founded in 2010 as an experiment in engaged learning and scholarship. The CDL seeks to
produce timely, accessible, and impactful research that informs more just and effective climate
change policies. We work with leading actors in government, civil society, and the media around the
world in the attempt to bring about change by identifying and filling important research gaps and
generating ideas for action on climate change. The CDL fosters transformational learning
experiences by equipping Brown students with the tools to effectively shape policy and explore the
intersections between climate change, public policy, and global governance.
How to cite this report: Slevin, Isaac, William Kattrup, and Timmons Roberts. 2023. “Against the
Wind: A Map of the Anti-Offshore Wind Network in the Eastern United States.” The Climate and
Development Lab, December, 2023
Disclaimer: This report represents an initial phase of research about the network of opposition
to offshore wind development, produced by a team of undergraduate students in Brown University’s
Climate and Development Lab. The statements, views, opinions, and information contained in the
report are personal to the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Brown University.
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Offshore wind energy is vital for East Coast
communities to meet their renewable energy goals
and mitigate climate change. Yet a collection of
new, community-based groups have resisted new
offshore wind projects from Massachusetts to
Virginia. They attack offshore wind projects at
protests, town council meetings, and in the pages
of local newspapers, often employing
misinformation. This report reveals how these East
Coast offshore wind opponents are not solely local
– they are embedded in a network of seasoned
fossil fuel interests and climate denial think tanks
that have perfected obstruction tactics for
decades.
These new grassroots-appearing groups and
experienced obstructionist think tanks share legal
support, public speakers, leadership, and
information and tactical subsidies. Though they
appear to operate organically, in many cases they
are directly supported by well-funded, national
organizations with ties to the fossil fuel industry and
dark money. This creates a facade of local
opposition that is actually part of a broader,
sustained anti-renewable energy campaign.
Our map represents 18 local groups and
businesses, 14 climate denial think tanks, 8
coalitions, 11 other established entities, and 16 key
individuals. The network revolves around three key
coalitions. The American Coalition for Ocean
Protection (ACOP) – founded by a libertarian think
tank – is at the center, connecting climate denial
think tanks sponsored by the fossil fuel industry
with several local anti-offshore wind (anti-OSW)
organizations.
Three of the local groups in ACOP are also
members of Save Right Whales, which is the
primary coalition for the new wave of anti-OSW
groups. Save Right Whales was created by
Environmental Progress, which has ties to
organizations that routinely obstruct climate policy.
ACOP also co-founded the Save The Whale
Coalition. The only two other members of Save The
3
Whale are climate denial think tanks that share
nearly identical anti-OSW talking points. The five
obstructionist think tanks in ACOP are also
members of the State Policy Network, a key
national player in right-wing politics and the climate
change counter-movement.
Though donor-advised funds and disclosure
issues make it impossible to reveal all direct funding
sources, we identify a direction of influence
extending from dark money donors and fossil fuel
organizations to local grassroots-appearing groups.
We identified six major fossil fuel and dark money
donors – the Charles Koch Foundation, the Charles
Koch Institute, DonorsTrust, the State Policy
Network, and the American Fuel and Petrochemical
Manufacturers Association – that fund 17 think
tanks involved in the anti-OSW network. 14 of these
have been identified as publishers of climate
change denial. The think tanks, in turn, influence
local anti-OSW groups by providing financial
resources, legal support, and personnel. We
identify a total of $72,276,593 in contributions from
the six major donors to groups in the network
between 2017 and 2021. Of these donations,
$16,278,401 have gone to members of ACOP.
Organized and widespread obstruction to
offshore wind energy risks catastrophic climate
change impacts by hampering our ability to
transition away from fossil fuels. Low-income
communities and communities of color bear the
brunt of health impacts of fossil fuel use. They will
also be most impacted by climate change, in stark
contrast to the fossil fuel interests and coastal
property owners involved in the anti-OSW network.
Executive Summary
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Introduction
On a sweltering August day in 2021, Mary
Chalke and David Stevenson announced an
unprecedented new coalition to unite forces in
their respective battles against offshore wind
turbines. In a press conference outside the
Massachusetts State House, they announced the
formation of the American Coalition for Ocean
Protection, or ACOP. Stevenson would be
president, and Chalke’s group, Nantucket
Residents Against Turbines would be a founding
member.1
ACOP is an ambitious project. It joins five
libertarian think tanks in five different states with
five organizations fighting against specific offshore
wind initiatives on the local level.2 ACOP and
Stevenson also direct the Ocean Environment
Legal Defense Fund, which supports many of the
lawsuits levied by community groups against
offshore wind, such as the one challenging the
Vineyard Wind project that Stevenson and Chalke
announced at their press conference.3 4 5
Their alliance seems unlikely. At the press
conference, Chalke spoke the language of
environmental conservation, worrying that
Vineyard Wind would disturb the “pristine natural
environment.”6 Stevenson, meanwhile, is a former
member of the Trump Administration’s EPA
transition team and a policy director for the Caesar
Rodney Institute, a Delaware-based libertarian
think tank.7
With increasing frequency and coordination,
national-level fossil fuel interests have involved
themselves with grassroots-appearing groups in a
half dozen states along the Eastern Seaboard.
Local groups such as Protect Our Coast NJ and
Save Long Beach Island have entered partnerships
with think tanks that receive money from the fossil
fuel industry and its allies, and that have been
identified in the literature as climate denialists.8
As offshore wind power has gained international
prominence as a vital climate solution, and as a
wave of offshore wind projects finally enter
development in the United States, they have been
met with a remarkable, highly coordinated network
of resistance. This map illustrates the deeply
interwoven relationships between new grassroots- appearing anti-offshore wind (anti-OSW) groups
and known fossil fuel-allied actors in the
conservative movement. Though journalists have
illustrated specific connections between local
actors and national interests, no cohesive
understanding of offshore wind opposition exists.9
10 11 12 13 14
This map seeks to fill that gap. While much has
yet to be revealed about the offshore wind
opposition, this report seeks to begin the efforts to
understand this complex, evolving network.
4
The Map
Groups that operate primarily on the local
scale are represented in blue. These are
“grassroots” anti-OSW groups and some
businesses.
Individuals are represented in orange. These
include group leaders, a politician, and other
major players in the movement.
Coalitions are represented in purple. Not all
members of the Cooler Heads Coalition, State
Policy Network, the Responsible Offshore
Development Alliance, and North American
Platform Against Windpower are represented
due to space constraints. Not all individuals
with membership in Save Right Whales are
represented for the same reason. The
membership of the Wildlife, Energy, and
Community Coalition is not public.
Climate denial groups are represented in red.
Each of these groups published climate denial
as demonstrated in “Obstructing action:
foundation funding and US climate,” published
by Climate and Development Lab scholars in
2021.15
Key
