In the late Summer of 2022, as a result of misleading information and lack of public awareness regarding the proposed Atlantic Shores and Orsted industrial offshore wind energy projects off of the Brigantine coastline, a dozen local residents met to plan on how to educate the community about the offshore wind projects and their associated impacts to the environment, marine life, tourism, the seashore economies, and the health and well-being of our community. Through hard work and perseverance, Defend Brigantine Beach was born on December 18, 2022. Shortly thereafter, Defend Brigantine Beach Incorporated was registered in New Jersey, as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization allowing tax-deductible donations for our work in citizens outreach, research, promoting public sentiment, educating elected officials, and filing numerous lawsuits against Offshore Wind defendants in the State of New Jersey.
In January of 2024 we added the townships of Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate, and Longport, NJ and changed our name to Defend Our Beaches NJ to represent Atlantic County’s coastal communities and continue our fight against industrial offshore wind off of the coast of New Jersey. We are a non-partisan, mission-driven, grassroots coalition supported by thousands of concerned New Jersey shore homeowners, elected officials, business owners, and visitors. We are proponents of a responsible and sensible approach to clean alternative/renewable energy solutions. However offshore wind energy meets none of the criteria. Our all-volunteer team is comprised of Atlantic County homeowners, residents, business owners, and friends with diverse backgrounds. We care deeply about the future of our beautiful island and surrounding towns.
Our hard work, with collaboration and support from other NJ Municipalities, as well as Cape May, Ocean, and Monmouth Counties, and support from our own Mayor Vince Sera and Congressman Jeff Van Drew, has enabled us to stop the Federal and NJ State planned industrial offshore wind projects known as Orsted Ocean Wind 1 and 2, and Atlantic Shores 1 and 2, which we believe would have devastated our beach experiences, our beautiful seashore views, our local economies, commercial and recreational fishing, and the offshore marine environment, while significantly increasing our utility rates and local taxes.
Our Defend Our Beaches Committee and Volunteers spent thousands of hours over the past two plus years supporting Community Awareness and Outreach to businesses and homeowners, designing and producing marketing collateral such as shirts, banners, and yard signs, procuring billboards and banner planes to share our message, and leading numerous door-to-door activities in community neighborhoods, and holding fundraisers to support our cause.
In addition we developed extensive research and white papers for use in Public Comment to the Federal and State agencies responsible for Offshore Wind and authored numerous articles to the Press to express our views. We also held press conferences and informational sessions for both the Public and our Government Officials and participated in numerous Government hearings and meetings to convince them of the dangers of offshore wind.
Finally we prepared and submitted litigation numerous times against the State New Jersey, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Orsted and Atlantic Shores Corporations. Our lawsuits, combined with support from many of our sister organizations, have enabled us to also put the Federal and State Government Agencies and the Offshore Wind Companies on notice that the residents of New Jersey will never accept anything less than the complete cancellation of these damaging Offshore Wind Projects.
The successes we have achieved to date have been outstanding. Orsted has left and Atlantic Shores should follow very shortly. However, our work will not be completed until these offshore wind companies completely vacate our shores and the Federal Offshore Leases still active off of our New Jersey coastline previously awarded by the Federal Bureau of Ocean and Environmental Management are rescinded and cancelled. Until that happens we will remain vigilant.
Our organization is grateful for all of the support we received from our Brigantine family, and for many others in New Jersey that have contributed to our success. We ask that you please continue to collaborate and support us as we wrap these final issues and claim a “ Final Victory.” Thank you.
Keith Moore
Director of Government Affairs
Defend Our Beaches NJ
