Posted on October 25, 2021
The push to build wind farms off the New Jersey coastline is getting strong support, judging by comments made at the first public hearing held by the federal regulator that is overseeing the latest project.
Sixteen out of 21 speakers commenting at the meeting urged the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to approve an application by the developer Atlantic Shores to build a wind farm 10 miles to 20 miles off the Jersey Shore between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light at the northern end of Long Beach Island.
Supporters argued that the approximately 200 turbines planned for the farm will provide a big boost to the state’s manufacturing economy, improve air quality and have little impact on wildlife.
But the most important benefit of offshore wind, its cheerleaders said, is that the electricity generated will help New Jersey cut its greenhouse-gas emissions as part of a broader global goal of limiting the average temperature rise and holding back the worst impacts of climate change.
“Climate change can seem very abstract or distant, but it affects all of us now,” said Jamie Klenetsky, a Morris County resident who was born in Monmouth County. “It’s only going to get worse. If we do nothing, we are going to end up living on a very different planet than the one we were born on, and I don’t think it’s one that would be conducive to our way of life.”
Klenetsky said there could be negative impacts from the construction of offshore wind farms but not building them will have a much greater impact if there is no broader transition to renewable fuels.
“I’m just a layperson, a nonscientist. I’m not involved in organizations, I really care about this issue, and I love my sea, and I love the Shore, and this is a wonderful step toward preserving the Shore and the country,” she said.
Zoe Leach, a seven-year resident of New Jersey, said she’s tired of imagining a “dystopian” future and so wants to see massive investment in renewable fuels like offshore wind farms in an effort to cut the consumption of planet-heating fossil fuels.
Leach said she is uneasy about starting to have children because of the floods, fires, storms and soaring temperatures that are coming with climate change.
Family planning and sustainable future
“My husband wants to start a family, but I, frankly, don’t think that I can until I see new projects like these start to really change the tide towards a climate that is sustainable for our future,” she said during the online hearing Tuesday.
Offshore wind has been championed by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat now running for reelection, as a major component of his strategy to convert the state to 100% clean energy by 2050. Murphy predicts New Jersey will become a hub for the industry because of its position near the center of the Atlantic coast, and so will generate thousands of jobs.
Murphy wants to generate 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2035. The contribution of Atlantic Shores will be 1,510 megawatts of that, or enough to power 700,000 homes. It is expected to start producing power in 2027. If approved by BOEM, Atlantic Shores will be the second wind farm off the New Jersey coast after the first phase of Ocean Wind, a separate project about 15 miles off Atlantic City.
Although most speakers at Tuesday’s event offered wholehearted support for offshore wind, a minority of critics argued that turbines will spoil ocean views; that the coastal economy will be ruined because tourists won’t want to see turbines on the horizon; that their blades will kill migrating birds; and that noise from the turbines will disrupt the migration of endangered whales.
Bob Stern of the anti-wind-farm group Save Long Beach Island also said the reduction in fossil fuel use that would result from offshore wind energy will make almost no difference to the rate of sea-level rise, which is forecast to be 2 feet higher at the Shore than it was in 2000.
“We should be looking for effective solutions, and solutions that don’t trample on other environmental values, and on the economics of other interests like tourism and fishing,” he said.
Wendy Kouba, another member of Save Long Beach Island, said most of the profits from Atlantic Shores will go to the two European companies that have a 50-50 interest in the project — Shell New Energies U.S. and EDF Renewables, which is majority-owned by the French government.
Kouba called the project “completely unreasonable” and said it can only be resolved through legal intervention “which we are actively pursuing.”
Forced out of fishing grounds
David Wallace, who said he spoke for the fishing industry, said commercial fishermen will be forced out of their traditional fishing grounds by wind turbines that will be built too close together to allow vessels to fish there safely.
“They are putting them extremely close together so that our vessels can’t operate within those areas without damage to our crews and vessels,” he said. “Therefore, they are being excluded from the areas where we traditionally fish with no compensation.”
But two other speakers who run fishing charters in the area where the wind farms will be built said they expect opportunities for their clients will increase because fish will be attracted to reef-like conditions created by the legs of the massive turbines.
“They will create a lot of good fish habitat and hopefully some good fishing,” said Captain Brian Williams, who runs charters between Long Beach Island and Cape May.
Captain Paul Eidman said anglers all recognize that their environment is changing because of climate change, and they hope impacts such as bigger storms will ease with a reduction in fossil-fuel use.
Eidman said there’s no reason why the recreational fishing industry can’t coexist with wind farms provided that fishing boats will be allowed up close to the turbines to take advantage of the new habitat; that the industry keeps anglers informed of its plans, and that it monitors fisheries for any impacts.
“The overwhelming majority of anglers that I know and meet with all see the fishing potential of the wind farms,” he said.
Walter Clarke of South Orange called himself “a regular guy” who doesn’t have a house at the Shore or own stock in the wind companies, but supports offshore wind in part because it offers part of a solution to the climate crisis.
“Whether climate change is natural or manmade, we need to do everything we can to preserve the planet that human beings can live in,” he said. “Here in New Jersey, we know this needs to be done as part of our arsenal to help resist climate change.”
Clarke wants to see offshore wind also because his wife and daughter are asthmatic, and he hopes a reduction in fossil-fuel pollution will improve their health.
“I would like not to have their health exacerbated by the cars we drive and the gas that heats our house,” he said. “But we can’t electrify everything unless that is done with renewable sources like wind. For me this is pretty much a no-brainer.”
