By Stephen Appezzato
LONG BRANCH – Reacting to concerns that New Jerseyans have not been given enough time to review and comment on federal plans for offshore wind projects off the New York/ New Jersey shoreline, the nonprofit environmental group Clean Ocean Action held a public forum in Long Branch Feb. 20 to provide citizens with an opportunity to review and comment on the federal proposal.
Many residents, groups and activists are up in arms with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which oversees the development of offshore energy projects.
On Jan. 12, the agency released a 1,400-page environmental review of future offshore wind development off of the New Jersey/New York shore. However, residents were only given until Feb. 26, or 45 days, to review and provide public comment on the document.
“That’s really not enough time,” said Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf.
According to Zipf, the BOEM also did not provide residents an opportunity to be seen and heard in a “traditional” public forum.
“We are very, very concerned that the citizens whose livelihoods, whose quality of life, whose environment (will be impacted) will not face the deciders, the decision makers,” Zipf said.
The report, titled Draft Environmental Review of Future Development of Wind Lease Areas Offshore New York and New Jersey, assesses the potential biological, socioeconomic, physical and cultural impacts that could result from development activities for six commercial wind energy leases in an area off the New Jersey and New York shores known as the New York Bight. These six projects would span 488,000 acres of ocean off the Jersey Shore.
The COA-sponsored public forum drew a crowd of concerned residents eager to be heard on the proposal last Tuesday night. A court reporter was present to record public comment as residents and environmental activists voiced their opinions on the draft environmental review.
Many who commented publicly called for more due diligence, an extension of the 45-day review and public comment period, and further scientific inquiry into commercial offshore wind.
Jacqueline Walling, who’s relatives work in the local commercial fishing industry, pointed to issues like navigational safety, habitat changes and wildlife behavioral changes as problems offshore wind could potentially create.
Walling requested that the BOEM invest more time and study into offshore wind “as it seems the true cost benefit analysis of offshore wind energy development and its extensive supporting infrastructure has not been conducted,” she said.
Gregory Cudnik of Long Beach Island, a recreational angler and member of the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council advisory board, said “there must be an extension to this deadline,” and that “the speed of development is outpacing the speed of science.”
Cudnik spoke about the alleged impact offshore wind development would have on the New Jersey and New York bight fishing industry, a multibillion-dollar sector of the New Jersey economy.
“A large portion of recreational fishing effort occurs within popular fishing areas that have been leased out for offshore wind development,” Cudnik said.
“The diversity of these rich fisheries and the threat for offshore wind development impacts are not bounded by lease area borders,” he said.
“Defaming, demoralizing, degenerative, dismissing – that is what the recreational and commercial fishing community has faced with this industrial offshore wind effort,” said Brick Township resident and avid angler Jim Hutchinson Jr.
Hutchinson said that, as part of his job, he researched industrial offshore wind studies from 2018, reading through reports completed by Danish energy companies which revealed surprising findings.
Hutchinson was most concerned with the electromagnetic frequencies offshore wind farms emit, which according to a 2012 study would greatly impact flounder, the cornerstone of NJ fisheries, he said.
Residents voiced concerns over the environmental and fishing industry impact, funding, rising energy bills and more in the public comment period, which was sent to the BOEM.
Zipf said COA is not opposed to the idea of offshore wind, but they’re opposed to the “scope, scale, speed and magnitude of what’s being proposed out in the ocean right now”; which according to Zipf, is “without the science, without the due diligence and without the lack of good governance.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who “is committed to helping improve the compatibility of offshore wind energy with fishing, aquaculture, and other ocean uses,” the construction and operation of wind turbines could impact commercial, recreational, and tribal fishing in a variety of ways. Some of which are the displacement of fisherman from traditional fishing areas, disrupting vessel radar systems and “changing the distribution, abundance, and species composition of fish in an area.” NOAA provides data on fishing operations and the potential socioeconomic impacts of offshore wind projects on fishing industries to the BOEM.
As part of transitioning the national economy towards renewable energy, the Biden-Harris administration has committed to deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. Gov. Phil Murphy, who is committed to achieving a 100% clean energy economy in New Jersey by 2035, stands behind offshore wind energy due to the jobs these projects will produce and their clean energy output.
As of press time the BOEM has not extended the public input and review peri- od on the 1400-page study. The final day to submit comments is Feb. 26. Comments may be submitted electronically at regulations.gov by searching for Docket No. BOEM-2024-0001 and clicking on “Comment.” Written comments may also be submitted by mail addressed to: Chief, Division of Environmental Assessment, Office of Environmental Programs, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 45600 Woodland Road, VAM-OEP, Sterling, VA 20166. Comments should be sent in an envelope labeled “New York Bight Draft PEIS,” and postmarked no later than Feb. 26, 2024.
The article originally appeared in the February 22 –28, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
