Cape May County steps up criticism of offshore wind project

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A rendering illustrates the massive size of offshore wind turbines for the proposed Ocean Wind 1 project. (Courtesy of Cape May County)

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI

Elected officials representing Cape May County have denounced plans for an offshore wind farm which they say could have catastrophic environmental impacts and could also harm the tourism-based economy.

At the same time, they pledged to continue their legal battle to challenge a series of state and federal regulatory approvals needed to build the proposed Ocean Wind 1 project 15 miles off Atlantic City at Stone Harbor.

Little Cape May County is fighting hard, said U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew, whose congressional district includes coastal Atlantic and Cape May County towns that would be hardest hit by the wind farm.

Van Drew and other Republicans representing Cape May County reiterated their opposition to the project during a nearly two-hour online public forum Saturday morning that was streamed live on Facebook and watched by hundreds of people.

I’ll never give up. You will never give up, Van Drew told his fellow wind farm opponents.

A replay of the Facebook forum can be viewed at capewindinfo.com.

Other speakers included Cape May County Board of Commissioners Leonard Desiderio, County Special Counsel Michael Donahue and the First Legislative District team of State Senator Michael Testa and members of the Assembly of State Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen.

Congressman Jeff Van Drew said the fight will continue against the planned wind farm off the south coast of Jersey.

All speakers were highly critical of the project’s developer, Danish energy company Orsted, as well as state and federal agencies overseeing regulatory approvals for wind farms.

They argued that government agencies went to extraordinary lengths to rush the project through the regulatory process while ignoring objections from the public and elected officials.

We are not crazed climate deniers, Donohue said. We have serious concerns for this community, for the environment and for our economy.

Donohue read a statement on behalf of Cape May County Commissioners pledging their willingness to work with different levels of government for offshore wind technology if the project could be done in a responsible, low-harm way.

However, Cape May County officials have complained that their concerns about ocean industrialization have been repeatedly dismissed by state and federal regulatory agencies involved in the project, such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. , the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Utilities Board.

If the plans of the state and federal governments come to fruition, there will be a massive corridor of thousand-foot-tall windmills along much of the East Coast with a large concentration of hundreds of these industrial structures at the off our county’s beaches, Desiderio said.

The Orsteds Ocean Wind 1 project is just one of around 30 wind farms proposed so far along the East Coast. Ocean Wind 1 would feature nearly 100 towering wind turbines stretching from Atlantic City to Stone Harbor to a number of coastal communities in Cape May County, including Ocean City and Sea Isle City.

In total, nearly 100 wind turbines are planned in Orsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project. (Courtesy of Cape May County)

Desiderio, who is also mayor of Sea Isle, said state and federal regulators are content to see Cape May County’s environment and economy severely disrupted in order to build the wind turbines at any cost.

And those costs are extremely high, he added.

According to Desiderio, wind farm projects are subsidized with massive amounts of taxpayers’ money. New Jersey has already given about $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the wind farm industry and more may be on the way, Donahue said.

Forum speakers expressed concern that Orsted and other foreign companies involved in the wind farm industry would be able to control millions of acres of ocean off the East Coast through leases with the US government.

The fix is ​​in place. Think about it, Van Drew said of the alleged favoritism of state and federal regulatory agencies towards the wind farm industry.

The Democratic administrations of President Joe Biden and Governor Phil Murphys have backed wind farms as a form of clean, renewable energy that will help fight climate change.

Murphy wants New Jersey to become a leader in green energy. So far, the state has approved three offshore wind farms and is looking to add more. Murphy’s goal is to have offshore wind farms producing 11,000 megawatts of electricity in New Jersey by 2040.

County Special Counsel Michael Donohue is concerned about the wind farm’s possible impact on the environment and economy.

Saturday’s forum speakers presented a much bleaker view of the wind farm industry. They characterized Orsteds’ project as nothing more than a blatant cash grab.

Look, if anybody thinks this is green energy, the only green thing it’s about is the money they put in their wallet, in their campaign account, and everywhere else. It’s a cash grab, Simonsen said.

McClellan claimed the project was driven purely by greed.

That’s what’s happening here. His sheer greed, he said.

Opposition to the wind farm among Cape May County officials has intensified following the deaths of dozens of whales and dolphins since November along the east coast, some of which have washed up on the beaches of Sea Isle, Wildwood Crest Strathmere, Atlantic City and Brigantine.

Critics of Orsteds accused sonar mapping of the seabed, a preliminary step to building the wind farm, of disrupting the acoustic abilities of marine mammals, leading to their death.

However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the New Jersey Department of Environmental and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center say wounds found on some of the whale carcasses indicate they were likely killed by ship strikes. They say there is no evidence to link whale deaths to wind farms.

This dead humpback whale washed up in Seaside Park in March. (Photo courtesy of Marine Mammal Stranding Center)

Testa has called for a 60-day moratorium on all wind farm activities to investigate whether there is a link between the project and the deaths of whales and dolphins.

Since November 2022, we have seen a massive increase in whale, dolphin and porpoise mortality. And all we said was, what’s going on? Testa has indicated its desire to put the Orsted project on hold for further study.

Called for a reasonable moratorium and an exploration of how to do it right, if it can be done right, he later added.

Testa took issue with some of the people and groups who have criticized opponents of the wind farm for trying to delay or stop a project that is supposed to create thousands of union construction jobs.

They have the nerve to say they were science deniers, climate change deniers and they were against thousands of union jobs. Were not. We want South Jersey to work. But we don’t want to sacrifice our coastline either, he said.

In the long term, the Orsteds project could cause irreversible ecological damage to marine life, including injury or death to thousands of marine species and wildlife, opponents say.

They also fear the project will harm tourism, land values, the fishing and boating industries and create a visual blight when the towering wind turbines are viewed from land.

Desiderio expressed concern that the Orsteds Wind Farm could pose a serious threat to Cape May County’s annual tourism industry, which is worth nearly $7.5 billion. During the forum, officials said there is data showing that 5 to 15 percent of tourists in the county will not return for vacation if the wind farm is built 15 miles offshore.

Cape May County Board of Commissioners director Leonard Desiderio fears tourism will be affected by the wind farm.

Meanwhile, Orsted continues to follow the permitting and regulatory process for the Ocean Wind 1 project. The company has indicated that it hopes to build the wind farm in 2024.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced in May that it had completed its environmental analysis of the Ocean Wind 1 project. This is a key preliminary step necessary for the construction of the wind farm.

The BOEM release of the final EIS represents the culmination of years of thoughtful and extensive environmental study, analysis, review and stakeholder interaction and engagement, said Katharine Perry, Permits Manager for Orsted, in a statement. This reinforces that Ocean Wind 1 can and will be developed with a clear focus on protecting and preserving New Jersey’s vast natural resources.

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