The devil is in the details!
Government mandates and laws cause utilities to buy power from sources like wind farms. The power from wind obviously will vary literally with the wind. I'm not sure why people who advocate that we can get our power from wind can't understand this point. They can clearly see that wind speeds vary. Sometimes calm, sometimes violent and sometimes in between. How can it be a reliable source of power?
Utilities are nevertheless forced to buy wind power and pay high prices for it. Then they have to build backup generation capacity to provide the power when the wind is not blowing or blowing fast enough. They also have to build the power lines, transformers and other equipment to allow them to use the wind generated power. The equipment is expensive, requires maintenance and increases the complexity of the overall power generating network. Meaning blackouts and faults are more likely. After everything is calculated, it is rare for wind power to be economic. It is even rare for it to cumulatively generate enough power to pay for itself and all the equipment needed to use it.
The reason that huge wind and solar projects always have government involvement in providing funding, guarantees, and subsidies is that those projects won't make money otherwise. So, if they are in fact built, then there has to be such involvement.
What forces can overcome government subsidies, guarantees and regulations that promote building wind farms and stop them? The answer is NIMBY or Not In My Back Yard forces especially when NIMBY is by the rich. If an area is wealthy, they probably are not going to want to see a huge unsightly utility project such as a large offshore wind farm. And rich people have a larger voice, can hire more lawyers and get their voices heard in more places. I'm not surprised that when they want to build a huge wind farm close to a location where wealthy people have their beach homes, that the project will be blocked. The wealthy people in coastal cities are typically all for solar and wind. But they aren't for it if it inconveniences them, or they have to look at huge ugly offshore wind farms.
What environmental damage does offshore wind do?
My view is it does not do much - except to sea birds which it can kill in large numbers. Whales and other mammals in my view won't suffer long term damage from them and will learn to understand/live with the underwater noise from them.
