U.S. Dept. of Interior/Offshore wind turbine
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
WASHINGTON, D.C.
— The U.S. Department of the Interior Tuesday, July 2 announced it has approved the Atlantic Shores South offshore wind energy project – the nation’s ninth commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project approved by the Biden Administration. It includes production of more than 13 gigawatts of clean energy, which is enough to power nearly 5 million homes.
Save LBI, an organization formed to stop the projects, vowed to continue its fight against industrialization of the ocean.
“The Biden-Harris administration is building momentum every day for our clean energy future, and today’s milestone is yet another step toward our ambitious goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore energy by 2030,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a release, about the administration’s effort to address climate change, create jobs, and foster economic opportunity.
“Today’s approval of an offshore wind project that has a labor agreement with six New Jersey unions reflects the win-win opportunities that we are seizing to benefit local workers and communities,” National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said.
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Elizabeth Klein said the approval is part of a collaborative process that engaged government, industry and organizations in “addressing community concerns and safeguarding our marine ecosystems.”
BOEM has held four offshore wind energy lease sales, including offshore New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. The Department also recently announced a schedule of up to 12 additional lease sales through 2028, the release states.
The Atlantic Shores South wind project consists of two wind energy facilities — Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project 1 and 2 — and associated export cables, which are expected to generate up to 2,800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power close to one million homes with clean renewable energy.
The project is approximately 8.7 miles offshore New Jersey at its closest point. To provide energy to New Jersey, Atlantic Shores South proposed up to 200 total wind turbine generators and up to ten offshore substations with subsea transmission cables potentially making landfall in Atlantic City and Sea Girt, New Jersey. BOEM has approved construction of up to 195 wind turbine generators.
Save LBI President Bob Stern denounced the decision, calling the projects an “aberration.”
“…No other country in the world is considering a wind turbine project of this turbine size and number within 9 miles off their coastline. The project violates a number of statutes and must be stopped, which is why we are challenging it in court. We have one lawsuit pending and will be pursuing at least seven other avenues of legal intervention,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
The Atlantic Shores South project will have a “negligible” impact on climate change, Stern said.
“As an intermittent source of energy, It will not, by itself, power a single home in New Jersey throughout the year,” he said.
The destructive impacts of the Atlantic Shores South project include decimating the natural beauty of the horizon with visual clutter, disorienting effect of the rotating blades and noise from pile driving during construction and the blades spinning that will be heard from the shore, he said.
Because the projects are subsidized by taxpayers, costs on electric bills will increase. Stern said he doubts they will do anything to mitigate climate change and sea level rise, and although they may create some high-paying jobs, lower paying jobs in the tourism sector will be negatively impacted.
Additionally, a part of the project is situated adjacent to the endangered Right whales migration ro.
“Underwater noise from these large turbines will seriously impede and potentially block the whales’ essential migration,” he said.
Detractors also say the project will negatively affect the fishing industry, vessel traffic and interfere with military air radar.
“This is a project in search of a purpose,” Stern said. “The Atlantic Shores South project is sheer folly, predicated only on clean and green slogans. The agency has never seriously considered any alternative to it, but fortunately we do have laws that discourage such arbitrary agency action.”
Feedback gleaned from four BOEM public comment periods on its final Environmental Impact Statement, which analyzed the projects’ potential negative impacts, is outlined in
BOEM’s Record of Decision, which will require terms and conditions of
Atlantic Shores’ Construction and Operations Plan, the release stated.
Learn more at BOEM’s
website.
