The rush to cash in on investment tax credits by 2025 has led the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to approve leases for huge offshore windfarms in the middle of whale migration routes. Critics fear a potential disaster in the making.

"Offshore wind development in the United States continues to draw opposition from coastal landowners, businesses, organizations, and other users of ocean waters, as it has since the industry first emerged here. However, several pieces of recent litigation reveal serious competition over the United States’ marine territory between incumbent marine resource industries and the relative newcomers from the renewable energy industry. One user group versus another is a theme that runs through the country’s history of public lands policy and law: rancher versus homesteader, forester versus hiker, irrigator versus fisherman, and hunter versus birder. The exceedingly difficult history associated with evolving uses of public lands and waters foreshadows the gravity of the contest now underway. The outcome of this competition may very well shape the use of ocean resources for years to come."