New Jersey has become the latest victim of the Biden’s administration aims for net zero.
Earlier this month, the president approved a huge offshore project to build 195 wind turbines, the nearest of which will be just fourteen kilometres from the south coast, by 2028.
The Atlantic Shores South project, nine years in the making, would deliver 2,800 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity to the Garden State, enough to power about a million homes.
The Biden administration sees the project as another milestone toward its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
But such rapid scaling up is expected to increase energy costs for residents by 55 percent by 2047, while industrial users could see increases of as much as 80 percent, according to a report by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. impact report by Whitestrand Consulting.
New Jersey has become the latest victim of the Biden administration’s push for net zero (stocks)
And the residents are not happy about that.
“Everybody in town is against the windmills. I haven’t met anyone who’s for the windmills,” Nancy McGinnis, an Ocean City resident, told Fox 29.
The company behind the project, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC, is a joint venture between Shell and EDF Renewables. They say the project to generate $1.9 billion in economic benefits to New Jersey, plus the creation of approximately 50,000 jobs.
Yet New Jersey’s offshore wind industry is headed in an economically unsustainable direction, the Whitestrand impact report shows.
‘Offshore wind energy is not economically viable without large subsidies in the form of federal tax credits and guaranteed above-market power prices.
“The initial costs are passed on to U.S. ratepayers, while the costs are borne by New Jersey electricity payers,” the report said.
But it’s not just energy costs that coastal New Jersey residents are concerned about.
While Atlantic Shores Wind LLC expects the project to reduce the state’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by four million tons, local residents are concerned about potential negative environmental impacts.
Residents of Long Beach Island (LBI) have formed the Save LBI coalition and are uniting to oppose the Atlantic Shores South project.
They are concerned about the “devastating impact of placing hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean near Long Beach Island and other coastal communities,” according to the Save LBI website. states.
Save LBI is particularly concerned about the project’s impact on marine life.
The project would block a key migration route for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
In addition, shipping traffic would be forced to use a narrow corridor of 18 kilometers (11 miles) wide, which could pose safety issues for both ships and migrating whales.
In addition, offshore wind farms cause underwater noise pollution, which can affect the behavior of fish, whales and other species.
Save LBI is also concerned that the wind farm will obstruct ocean views and ‘permanently damage the natural view of the horizon.’
To stop the project, Save LBI plans to take the state of New Jersey to court.
“The project violates a number of laws and must be stopped, which is why we are challenging it in court. We have one lawsuit pending and will pursue at least seven other avenues of legal intervention,” Bob Stern, president and founder of Save LBI said.
Two other anti-offshore wind groups, Defend Brigantine Beach and Protect Our Coast NJ, have also sued the state.
Last year it was the same three groups accused Danish wind energy company Orsted received a $1 billion grant for an offshore wind project.
Ørsted deleted the project was halted in October last year, citing supply chain issues and rising interest rates.
As the battle rages between New Jersey’s coastal residents and the state’s efforts to become a national leader in offshore wind energy, there is no indication that Atlantic Shores South will back down from the project.
The company’s CEO, Joris Veldhoven, told According to NJ Spotlight News, he expects construction of the project’s onshore components to begin as early as next year, but offshore work won’t begin until 2026 or 2027.
If this planning is correct, most turbines could be installed by 2028.
“That’s the nature of these projects,” Veldhoven told NJ Spotlight News. “We’re talking about billion-dollar construction projects that take years and years to develop and build.”
The New Jersey Energy Master Plan aims to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050. The state plans to achieve that goal by deploying 11,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2040.
Getting Atlantic Shores South off the ground would be a major step toward that goal and would advance the Biden administration’s goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
But it’s not just New Jersey that’s seeing these changes. States up and down the East Coast are facing rapid deployment of offshore wind to meet that 2050 goal.
As U.S. policymakers work to scale up offshore wind energy, they can expect more headwinds from coastal residents concerned about rising energy costs and environmental damage.