As dead whales continue to wash up on New Jersey’s beaches, Garden State officials are hoping to issue the final permits in the coming months enabling construction to begin later this year on the state’s first offshore wind facility.
Ocean Wind 1 is a project of a U.S. subsidiary of Danish wind developer Orsted. Upon completion, it would feature 98 giant turbines located 15 miles off the coast of Ocean City and Atlantic City. It is the first of three such projects planned for the Jersey Shore in the near future, with even more on the drawing board in the years to come.
While acknowledging certain environmental challenges associated with the project, New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in April issued a key approval for Ocean Wind 1. That decision is now being challenged in court by three groups opposed to the project. Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach, and Protect Our Coast NJ filed an appeal on June 23 in the Supreme Court of New Jersey, saying the DEP’s decision is inconsistent with state coastal management rules.
Threat to Marine Habitat
Bruce Afran, an attorney for the groups, told the Associated Press that the DEP “has acknowledged the wind turbines will destroy marine habitat, compress the sea floor, severely damage maritime communities, cause commercial fishing stocks to decline, and injure the beach economy.”
“Yet the state persists in the bizarre belief that this massive engineering project will not injure our state’s coastal zone, one of the most important marine communities on the East Coast and the core of New Jersey’s $47 billion tourist industry.”
To buttress his plaintiffs’ case, Afran cited numerous sections of the DEP’s April decision on Ocean Wind 1, “acknowledging potential negative impacts on the surf clam industry; changes to the ocean floor from wind turbine foundations and equipment; and the regular use of the area as a migrating channel for five species of whales, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale,” the AP reported.
The appeal follows a decision by the investigative arm of Congress, the Congressional Accountability Office, to study the impact of offshore wind on the environment and other areas – something opponents have long sought, the AP notes.
Orsted, in addition to Ocean Wind 1, has another offshore wind project making its way through New Jersey’s approval process. The Danish renewable energy developer now finds itself potentially benefitting handsomely from a bill under consideration by Garden State lawmakers. Legislation pushed by Sen. Bob Smith, Middlesex County Democrat, would allow Orsted to keep federal tax credits it otherwise would have to return to ratepayers in order to counter what the bill’s proponents say are lingering economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and still-high inflation.
Brian Lipman, director of the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, warned that what was good for the developer was not necessarily good for the ratepayer.
“There should be no doubt that this bill will increase the amount the developer earns on this project and will result in higher … prices being paid by ratepayers. That is the inevitable result of this bill,” he was quoted by AP as saying.
The final language of the bill is still being hashed out as lawmakers scramble to deal with what is seen as a sweetheart deal for Orsted and potentially a raw deal for ratepayers.
Meanwhile, the number of whale deaths along the East Coast since December has risen to 50. Uncertainty over what’s behind these deaths has led to calls for a pause in offshore wind development until the cause of the spike in mortality can be ascertained.