The Biden administration has approved New Jersey’s first offshore wind project, but the plan faces pushback — and the likelihood of legal challenges — from critics who say it will ruin the state’s storied coastline. [emphasis, links added]
The Atlantic Shores South project, given a green light by the U.S. Department of the Interior last week, calls for installing 200 towering wind turbines less than nine miles off the coast — providing enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes.
It’s the ninth offshore wind project approved by President Joe Biden as part of his efforts to expand the green power industry aggressively.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and environmental groups praised the project’s approval, saying it will help reduce the state and nation’s reliance on fossil fuel energy sources.
“Through the responsible development of offshore wind facilities, we can protect our aquatic and coastal resources and the communities who rely upon them while taking bold action to address the climate crisis by reducing emissions from fossil-fuel-dependent energy sources,” Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said in a statement.
However, the project faces pushback from the group Save Long Island Beach, which argues that towering turbines off New Jersey’s coastline would hurt marine life, the state’s fishing and tourism industries, and the local economy. It is expected to be challenged in court.
The evidence is clear. 86 #whales dead off the East Coast from December 2022 to now. Untold other #marinelife dead that were either not been found or washed to shore. https://t.co/A8eL9g8ndL
— SaveLBI (@saveLBIorg) February 20, 2024
“No other country in the world is considering a wind turbine project of this turbine size and number within nine miles off their coastline,” Bob Stern, the coalition’s president and founder, said in a statement.
“The project violates a number of statutes and must be stopped, which is why we are challenging it in court.”
He said the taxpayer-subsidized green energy project would result in “significantly increased” electricity bills statewide and do “virtually nothing” to mitigate sea level rise or climate change.
“It will not reduce future sea level rise at all, only delay whatever is coming by about one week,” Stern said.
Combined with other planned offshore wind projects farther out, it will force East Coast commercial, military, and fishing vessel traffic into a narrow 11-mile-wide corridor, he said, “creating safety concerns for both the vessels and the whales that will try to migrate through that same corridor.”
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