RFK Jr. Is Going After Trump’s Mortal Enemy: Wind Farms

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump-appointed health czar and MAHA figurehead, has promised to shake up American healthcare. And boy is he shaking it up. So far, Kennedy has flouted all sorts of longstanding precedents, changed critical health protocols (often for the worse), and fired a lot of people that seem to have been doing really important work. Most perturbing to many longtime health professionals, Kennedy seems to be ignoring many of the most pressing threats to Americans’ health (you know, stuff like Covid-19 and the cost of health insurance) and, instead, is going after a slew of purported enemies that, in some cases, may not be that big of a concern and, in other cases, are things widely believed to be beneficial to millions of Americans. Kennedy’s enemies list has included stuff like 5G, vaccines, Tylenol and, now, offshore wind farms.

It appears that the HHS head has a new preoccupation. He may not be tilting at windmills but he does appear to be scowling at wind farms (did you see what I did there?). Bloomberg reports that Kennedy’s agency is now investigating whether wind farms do…something bad…to stuff…or something. The outlet writes:

In late summer, HHS instructed CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to prepare research about wind farms’ impact on fishing businesses, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations…Among the offshore wind health impacts that HHS staff have investigated is the electric magnetic frequency generated from undersea cables used to connect power from the machines to the electric grid, one of the people said. Wind proponents say they aren’t harmful.

Yes, a resurgence of measles cases in America is, apparently, not that big of a deal but, according to our new health leader, artificial islands full of turbines that are located in the middle of the ocean may in fact be a significant threat to our collective well being. Snark aside, there is some scientific interest in whether wind farms may cause health problems for those who live in their proximity, but those investigations haven’t revealed anything particularly shocking. One study says that people who live or work next to wind turbines may report “decreased quality of life, annoyance, stress, sleep disturbance, headache, anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction”—a takeaway that most of us probably could have assumed without any sort of outside corroboration.

It’s worth noting—as Bloomberg does—that President Trump hates wind farms. He has often verbally excoriated them, calling them “so pathetic and so bad” and accusing them of “driving the whales crazy.” During his most recent term in office, his administration has made substantial efforts to quell offshore wind industry projects. Is there a correlation here between the President’s animosity and Kennedy’s new probe? Who can really say?

Gizmodo reached out to the HHS and the White House for comment, and will update this post if we get a response.