Gusts of activity underway by friends and foes of offshore wind energy projects
LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, NJ — Government supporters of offshore wind projects in New Jersey and New York are trading blows with opponents in some coastal cities, who say many vacationers and locals don’t want turbines to fill the ocean horizon.
Eight Jersey Shore beach towns wrote to state regulators on Wednesday, saying a wind farm proposal will be much more expensive than expected and cost tourism-driven jobs and economic activity.
Their decision came on the same day that federal energy regulators approved new rules to streamline the application and approval processes for offshore wind farms, and also on the day that New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued supply chain and logistics proposals to shake the offshore wind industry from its is able to help. . Hochul’s move came days after three projects in New York were scrapped because the companies and state regulators could not agree on financial terms.
Coastal cities covering much of New Jersey’s 120 miles of coastline wrote to the state’s Board of Public Utilities that the proposed Atlantic Shores wind farm will be more expensive than originally proposed, especially if developers are allowed to bid on it again.
An economic analysis of Long Beach Township, Beach Haven, Ship Bottom, Barnegat Light, Surf City, Harvey Cedars, Brigantine and Ventnor predicts that reduced visitation to the Jersey Shore by people who don’t want to see wind turbines on the horizon could reduce the costs to press. Ocean County alone has suffered more than $668 million in economic losses.
“The Atlantic Shores project will devastate the economies of coastal communities by deterring visitors and eliminating thousands of jobs,” said James Mancini, mayor of Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island. “It is imperative that all offshore wind projects be located far enough away to avoid these drastic impacts, which will negatively impact not only the residents, visitors and businesses of coastal communities, but all New Jerseyans.”
The cities also said allowing the project owners to rebid would increase the additional cost to taxpayers from $3.7 billion to $10 billion.
The BPU and Atlantic Shores did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Thursday. But the New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance said the law firm that wrote to New Jersey regulators is “embroiled in misguided lawsuits against offshore wind energy development,” and that an operational wind farm near Block Island, Rhode Island, proves that offshore wind farms can coexist tourism can exist. and recreational fishing.
Atlantic Shores would have 157 turbines and be located 9 miles from the coast, one of the closest projects proposed to the state’s coastline. It is a partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development, LLC.
It is one of three offshore wind projects currently underway in New Jersey. The state Board of Public Utilities in January selected Attentive Energy LLC and Leading Light Wind LLC to build offshore wind projects.
Also on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement have finalized new regulations for offshore wind projects intended to sustain the industry over the next 20 years. billion dollars to save. It would streamline some processes, eliminate what the agencies called duplication of requirements and allow money for any decommissioning work to be allocated incrementally rather than all at once at the start of a project.
That same day, New York’s governor responded to the collapse of three offshore wind projects last week by issuing requests for proposals and information on supply chains and logistics for offshore wind projects. That came after the state canceled three tentatively approved offshore wind projects after failing to reach final agreements with any of them
New York provisionally approved the projects in October 2023. They are Attentive Energy One, developed by TotalEnergies Rise Light & Stroom and Corio Generation; Community Offshore Wind and Excelsior Wind from Vineyard Offshore.