Jersey Shore residents demand more time to review offshore wind project

Jersey Shore residents, environmentalists and business industry advocates remain divided over whether to speed ahead or spend more time reviewing the environmental impacts of a plan to build a 1,100-megawatt offshore wind farm south of Atlantic City.

Ocean Wind 1 ― a project by Denmark-based energy company Ørsted and Newark-based power company Public Service Enterprise Group, or PSEG — could power up to half a million homes in New Jersey once complete, according to Ørsted.

But some environmentalists and coastal residents worry the potential impacts of the wind turbine array could disrupt the migration of critically endangered whales, irreparably harm the local fishing industry and ruin tourists' views from shore.

During a Tuesday hearing held virtually with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees approval of the Ocean Wind 1 project, Seaside Park Mayor John A. Peterson Jr. urged the federal agency to grant an extension to the public response and review period for the project's environmental impact. Peterson also requested all offshore wind project approvals along New Jersey be delayed until a pilot project was erected and carefully studied.

Ocean Wind 1's environmental impact statement "is a 1,400-page document and it is far too complex, far too vast an issue to take lightly," the mayor said during the hearing's public comment session. "This is an insufficient time period, I believe, for the public and for any and all other interested parties, including but not limited to municipalities, to comment on something of vast ramifications for the future."

BOEM's consideration of Ocean Wind 1's impacts failed to account for the cumulative impact of neighboring offshore wind projects along the Jersey Shore, Peterson said. Other projects ― a 2,200-megawatt project by Ørsted called Ocean Wind 2 to the south and two projects by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC stretching as far north as Barnegat Light ― are in development or under consideration by federal and state agencies. Atlantic Shores has secured another ocean lease area from BOEM and New York east of Atlantic City.

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Proponents of offshore wind say delaying the projects would lead to more environmental damage by slowing the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

"It's important to acknowledge that the production of every energy source has environmental impacts," Greg Remaud, chief executive officer of the environmental advocacy group NY-NJ Baykeeper, said during the hearing. "Every energy choice consists of evaluating potential environmental harm and choosing the forms of energy that have the least impact on environment and wildlife species. NY-NJ Baykeeper joins the many who believe that impact from construction of Ocean Wind 1 and wind energy in general are much less impactful on the environment than the continued overreliance on fossil fuels, which (is) at the heart of climate change."

In 2019, Gov. Phil Murphy set a goal through executive order that 7,500 megawatts of the state's energy be produced by offshore wind by 2035. The move is intended to reduce New Jersey's dependence on fossil fuels.

"The environmental community in New Jersey supports responsibly developed offshore wind to combat climate change," Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters said during the hearing. "In fact, the greatest threat to our ocean is climate change."

Scientists say rising sea levels, warming water and ocean acidification related to changing atmospheric conditions all pose serious risks to human and animal health.

"We've already begun to see the impacts through stronger and more frequent storms," said Potosnak. "We've also seen impacts to our agriculture, our fish industries and coastal erosion. Sea levels are already rising in New Jersey more than double the global average. We're facing a very real threat of loss of our historic barrier islands, islands that not only are iconic to our state, but also work to protect our mainland."

However, some stakeholders said the delays to review potential harms were necessary and urged BOEM to extend the time limit to provide input and review the impact statement. The 45-day public comment period ends Aug. 8.

Environmentalists from Clean Ocean Action were among the speakers during the BOEM hearing who requested a pilot study and extended commenting period for Ocean Wind 1's impacts.

Zachary Klein, policy attorney for Clean Ocean Action, asked BOEM "for an extension of the public comment period and for a pilot offshore wind project to be done off the New Jersey coast before we rush ahead with the industrialization of hundreds of thousands of acres of our invaluable ocean waters."

Klein said worrisome portions of the environmental impact statement needed further scrutiny: a plan to abandon undersea cables after the project's useful life ends as well as a lack of specific details over wetlands restoration and protection efforts.

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In addition, the impact statement's comparisons to offshore wind farms off Europe were insufficient to gauge Ocean Wind 1's anticipated affects, he said.

"The reality is that the waters of the North Sea in Northern Europe don't have nearly as much variety of marine mammals, including the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale," said Klein. "Jersey also has warmer waters than Northern Europe or Rhode Island, and the turbines placed off the New Jersey coast will realistically need to be able to withstand category 3 or category 4 hurricanes. Offshore turbines have not had to deal with weather events of that magnitude in Europe or Rhode Island."

But Remaud, of NY-NJ Baykeeper, said inaction was no longer an option.

"We're past the point of thinking small," he said. "We need clean, renewable energy to protect our shoreline communities and ecosystems. The benefits of moving forward with wind energy far outweigh the alternatives… including the alternative of doing nothing."

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On Wednesday, Ørsted announced its Ocean Wind 1 project would fund $13 million in fisheries research in partnership with Rutgers, Monmouth and Delaware State universities. The money will help fund monitoring of the abundance of fish and marine species as well as biodiversity within the Ocean Wind 1 project area.

Portions of the New Jersey fisheries communities say wind turbine arrays will make large swaths of ocean too dangerous to fish or harvest, while others say the turbine bases will create artificial reefs that will benefit their industry.

Ørsted's wind farm proposal includes a Fisheries Management Plan with seven fisheries surveys carried out of six years: prior to turbine construction, through all phases of turbine construction and following the completion of construction.

"This important study will collect a wealth of valuable data on important commercial and recreational species and can serve as a model for accomplishing fisheries monitoring at offshore wind sites on a regional scale," Ørsted's senior environment and permitting specialist Gregory DeCelles said in a news release.

The research team's principal investigator Thomas Grothues, a marine biologist at Rutgers University, said this area of the continental shelf is unique due to its swings in water temperature that make it an important marine animal migration route.

"It will be different than European and even Block Island (Rhode Island) offshore wind farms," he said in a prepared statement. "But this study is ambitious and comprehensive enough to tackle this challenge and should yield a trove of data that would be hard to get through any other kind of project."

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Renewable energy plan off Atlantic City leaves NJ residents divided