OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Opponents of offshore wind power initiatives in New Jersey are gathering drive legally and politically as they search to snuff out the nascent business.
Within the final week, three residents teams sued New Jersey over a key approval of its first deliberate wind farm; the analysis arm of Congress agreed to research the influence of offshore wind on the surroundings and different areas; and lawmakers in two counties most closely impacted by wind farms stepped up their efforts to dam the initiatives.
Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach, and Protect Our Coast NJ filed an enchantment Friday in state Superior Court of New Jersey’s willpower that the Ocean Wind I undertaking is in line with state coastal administration guidelines.
The undertaking is New Jersey’s first, and a U.S. subsidiary of Danish wind developer Orsted may start development this yr if remaining approvals are obtained.
The enchantment follows a call by the investigative arm of Congress, the Congressional Accountability Office, to review the influence of offshore wind on the surroundings and different areas — one thing opponents have lengthy needed.
Bruce Afran, an legal professional for the teams, mentioned the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection “has acknowledged the wind turbines will destroy marine habitat, compress the seafloor, severely damage marine communities, compromise migration corridors for endangered marine mammals, 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,” he added.
The DEP declined remark, and state legal professional normal’s workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Jeanne Fox, former head of the DEP, the state Board of Public Utilities and former regional head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, known as the lawsuit “a delay tactic.”
“Numerous environmental studies have been done regarding offshore wind, for this specific Ocean Wind project and in general,” she mentioned. “The greatest threat to the ocean habitat, sea mammals and fish is the climate crisis. Offshore wind will lessen the need to burn more fossil fuels.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”