Dead whales have been washing up at a concerning rate along the Atlantic Coast since 2016. But it’s really only this year that Republicans nationwide have started talking about it.

For the last few months, conservatives from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Tucker Carlson have been popularizing the unsubstantiated claim that turbine construction is causing the whale deaths. Despite the fact that offshore construction hasn’t even begun on the vast majority of projects, House Republicans have introduced a bill calling for a moratorium on offshore wind development, citing whale deaths. They have also sought an investigation into whale deaths from the Government Accountability Office.

But the state level is where the most potentially impactful political fights over offshore wind and whales are occurring—and New Jersey has been the primary testing ground.

This fight could have very real consequences for the country’s effort to slow climate change by transitioning away from fossil fuels. That’s why today, we’re publishing our full interview with Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, who has been publicly arguing with state Republicans over this issue for months. (We published some quotes from that interview last week).

In the full, subscribers-only interview, LaTourette told HEATED about his experience at the front lines of Republicans’ growing culture war against offshore wind. He candidly divulged what made him the most angry at this month’s hearing on whale deaths; clarified my questions about the uncertainty of science linking climate change and whale fatalities; and explained other importing, brewing climate policy battles in the state that may have implications nationally.

That interview is below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.