Gusts of activity underway by friends and foes of offshore wind energy projects

LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Government supporters of offshore upwind vigor projects successful New Jersey and New York are trading blows with opponents successful immoderate enactment towns who accidental galore vacationers and section residents don't privation to spot turbines filling the water horizon.

Eight Jersey Shore formation towns wrote to authorities inferior regulators Wednesday, saying 1 upwind workplace connection volition beryllium vastly much costly than projected, and volition outgo tourism-driven jobs and economical activity.

Their determination came connected the aforesaid time that national vigor regulators approved caller rules to streamline the exertion and support processes for offshore upwind farms, and besides the time that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued proviso concatenation and logistics proposals to assistance her state's offshore upwind industry. Hochul's determination came days aft 3 New York projects were scrapped due to the fact that the companies and authorities regulators couldn't hold connected the fiscal terms.

Shore towns spanning overmuch of New Jersey's 127-mile coastline wrote to the state's Board of Public Utilities, saying the projected Atlantic Shores upwind workplace volition beryllium costlier than primitively proposed, peculiarly if the developers are allowed to re-bid it.

An economical investigation sent by Long Beach Township, Beach Haven, Ship Bottom, Barnegat Light, Surf City, Harvey Cedars, Brigantine, and Ventnor predicts reduced visitation to the Jersey Shore by radical who don't privation to spot windmills connected the skyline could outgo Ocean County unsocial much than $668 cardinal successful economical losses.

“The Atlantic Shores task volition devastate the economies of the enactment municipalities by deterring visitors and eliminating thousands of jobs,” said James Mancini, politician of Long Beach Township connected Long Beach Island. "It is imperative that immoderate offshore upwind projects are placed acold capable retired to debar these drastic impacts, which adversely impact not lone the enactment municipalities’ residents, visitors, and businesses, but each of New Jersey’s residents.”

The towns besides said allowing the task owners to re-bid would summation further costs to ratepayers to $10 billion, up from $3.7 billion.

The BPU and Atlantic Shores did not instantly respond to a connection seeking remark Thursday. But the New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance said the instrumentality steadfast that wrote to New Jersey regulators is “engaged successful misguided litigation against offshore upwind development," and that an operating upwind workplace disconnected Block Island, Rhode Island proves that offshore upwind farms tin coexist with tourism and recreational fisheries.

Atlantic Shores would person 157 turbines and would beryllium located 8.7 miles from shore, among the closest projects projected for the state's shoreline. It is simply a concern betwixt Shell New Energies US LLC, and EDF-RE Offshore Development, LLC.

It is 1 of 3 offshore upwind projects presently pending successful New Jersey. The authorities Board of Public Utilities successful January chose Attentive Energy LLC and Leading Light Wind LLC to physique offshore upwind projects.

Also connected Wednesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement finalized caller regulations for offshore upwind projects intended to prevention the manufacture $1.9 cardinal implicit the adjacent 20 years. It would streamline immoderate processes, destruct what the agencies called duplicative requirements and let wealth for eventual decomissioning enactment to beryllium enactment up incrementally alternatively of each astatine erstwhile astatine the commencement of a project.

That aforesaid day, New York's politician responded to the illness of 3 offshore upwind projects past week by issuing requests for proposals and accusation regarding proviso chains and logistics for offshore upwind projects. That followed the authorities canceling 3 preliminarily approved offshore upwind projects aft failing to scope last agreements with immoderate of them

New York provisionally approved the projects successful October 2023. They are Attentive Energy One being developed by TotalEnergies Rise Light & Power and Corio Generation; Community Offshore Wind, and Vineyard Offshore’s Excelsior Wind.