The Biden administration is green-lighting a massive offshore wind farm off the coast of southern New Jersey despite calls for a pause on such development amid a spate of marine mammal deaths along the Atlantic Coast.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced Wednesday that it is approving the construction and operations plan for Ocean Wind 1, a 1,100-megawatt project that will be located 15 miles off the New Jersey coast, power 380,000 homes, and enter commercial operations in 2025. [emphasis, links added]
The project will comprise 98 wind turbines spread across a 68,450-acre lease area. …
“The project’s approval demonstrates the federal government’s commitment to developing clean energy and fighting climate change.”
White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said the project, which was first proposed in 2019, is “Bidenomics in action” and not an accident.
As part of its climate agenda, the Biden administration has aggressively moved forward with rapid offshore wind development across millions of acres of federal waters, primarily along the East Coast.
Shortly after taking office, President Biden outlined goals to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, the most ambitious goal of its kind worldwide.
In May 2021, BOEM approved the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project 12 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, marking the first-ever large-scale offshore wind approval.
Then, in November 2021, the agency approved the 130-megawatt Southfork Wind project off the coast of Long Island, New York, the second commercial-scale offshore project.
The Ocean Wind 1 project is the third-ever and largest-ever approved offshore wind development.
“Ocean Wind 1 is on the cusp of making history as construction on New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm is set to begin in a few short months, delivering on the promise of good-paying jobs, local investment, and clean energy,” said David Hardy, the top U.S. executive for Orsted, the Danish energy firm developing the project.
In addition, Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Reps. Donald Norcross and Bill Pascrell both cheered the action Wednesday along with various environmental groups and labor unions.
However, lawmakers, local officials, fishing industry associations, and wildlife groups along the Atlantic Coast have called for an offshore wind development moratorium amid an uptick in marine mammal deaths.
Since December, at least 39 whales and 37 dolphins have been found stranded on East Coast beaches near where energy developers have been conducting offshore wind surveys, according to local officials.
And the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan federal agency tasked with oversight of government operations, announced last month that it would investigate the potential impact offshore wind development has on wildlife, military operations, and commercial fisheries.
“Despite the GAO beginning to investigate potential harmful impacts of offshore wind development on our national defense, fishing industry, and environment, BOEM has chosen to move full steam ahead ignoring these warning signs,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“We are still also seeing an unprecedented number of marine mammals washing ashore, yet offshore wind in New Jersey has cleared one of the last hurdles before full-on construction can begin.”
“It is disappointing to see these federal agencies force these projects on Americans in order to meet President Biden’s aggressive Green New Deal agenda rather than doing what is right for our coastal communities, industries, and environment,” he continued.
“This fight is still not over and I will continue to use every means possible to halt this industrialization of our ocean. It is truly a fight between right and wrong and I will not give up. God help our coastal communities and our oceans.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who like Van Drew represents a district along the New Jersey coastline, similarly blasted the Biden administration’s approval Wednesday.
“Just days after New Jersey Democrats approved massive taxpayer-funded subsidies for foreign wind developer Orsted, the Biden Administration is once again recklessly greenlighting the unprecedented offshore wind industrialization of our shore before we know all of the potentially catastrophic impacts of these projects,” Smith told Fox News Digital.
“These offshore wind projects must — at a minimum — be paused until the Government Accountability Office concludes its ongoing independent investigation,” he continued. “New Jersey residents deserve to have their concerns addressed and questions answered before it is too late.”
Read more at Fox News
Liberals and democrats do hate animals as much as they hate humans. Kill all cat and dogs, kill the cows and now kill the whales.
Dead whales mean nothing when the Big Guy gets his ten percent.
So do the Eco-Freaks still want those things are they that blind by their ridiculous ideology? In which case their Ignorance will be worse for the environment then any imaginary threat of Global Warming/Climate Change
So when the wind isn’t blowing where will those 380,000 home get electricity because the wind doesn’t always blow either hard enough to produce name plate power or even sometimes blows too hard and they must be locked.
And that has nothing to do with the wanton killing of ocean mammals, some like the right whale are near extinction. When it’s the owls in Oregon who may be troubled by logging the left is all about stopping the development but somehow this one doesn’t matter.
So when is Greenpeace going to be blocking the Construction of Wind Turbines?