Over 120 people gathered to protest offshore wind energy in Cape May, New Jersey and call attention to mounting numbers of whales being washed up along the East Coast this year. Numerous speakers addressed the crowd and led them in chants, including CFACT’s president Craig Rucker, and the event concluded with protestors holding glow sticks and forming a “whale tail” to showcase their solidarity with other activists around the world that were also con
ducting protests.
“We know that the pile driving and sonar blasting going on out there is being done at decibel levels that interfere with the whale, dolphin and other marine mammal navigation system…that’s outlandish,” Rucker noted. CFACT’s president then went on to say that the offshore wind projects should be opposed because they are not truly “green”, they drive up costs on ratepayers, and they destabilize the grid.
Also addressing the crowd was Congressman Jeff Van Drew, state Senator Michael Testa, Lund Fisheries president Wayne Reichle, Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fisherman Association, conservation biologist Trisha DeVoe, animal rights activist Constance Gee, NJ fisherman Ed Baxter, and radio 98.7 FM host Melanie Collette.
The Biden administration currently plans to put in 30,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030 but has suffered numerous setbacks in recent months that has put his goal in jeopardy. Southcoast Wind in Massachusetts recently doled out $60 million to pull out of its contract to provide 2,400 MW in that state, and Avangrid’s Park City wind project was also recently terminated. In all, nearly 10,000 MW or the 30,000 MW of the President’s planned goal is now in a state of collapse as stock prices for several offshore wind and utility companies have plummeted by 40% in recent months.
