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Paper short abstract

How does powerful resistance to offshore wind become articulated? And why are proponents ineffective in doing so? Ethnographic research finds that opponents successfully articulate material interests and disinformation with place-attachment, creating internally contradictory yet unified resistance.

Paper long abstract

Transitioning away from fossil fuels requires the rapid build-out of renewable energy. Numerous U.S. coastal states consider offshore wind key to meeting emissions reduction targets and bolstering energy reliability. However, development is increasingly resisted by locals and decentralized movements across the country—recently emboldened by a White House that cut subsidies, withdrew funding, and issued stop-work orders. While existing research has documented factors shaping local perceptions of offshore wind, we ask: what is the relation between local grievances, disinformation, and offshore wind opposition? How do local concerns about offshore wind become articulated with the climate countermovement to form a powerful coalition? And why are project proponents unsuccessful in doing the same? We conducted an ethnographic study of resistance to offshore wind on the eastern shore of Maryland. The state has passed several acts pressing for the development of offshore wind since 2013. Yet, no turbines have been placed off its coast to date. By joining and extending Hallsian theory of articulation with theory of place, we argue that offshore wind opponents successfully articulate diverse material interests and disinformation with place-attachment, creating internally contradictory yet unified resistance. In contrast, proponents’ focus on information and science—and their dismissal of local concerns as NIMBYist—lead to a failure of articulation. Embarking on the just development of renewables demands understanding the relative ability of the climate movement versus countermovement to articulate with everyday subjectivities. We point towards the critical potential that ethnographic analysis offers in illuminating emergent—and unrealized—politics of energy transition.