Residents of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, a beach town on the Jersey shore, are gearing up to file a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for its “flawed” ruling in granting an offshore wind project a Clean Air Act permit. [emphasis, links added]
On Oct. 1, the Environmental Protection Agency granted the permit to the Atlantic Shores South project, one of the final bureaucratic hoops project developers needed to jump through before breaking ground.
The Clean Air Act mandates that the EPA regulate air emissions from both “stationary and mobile sources,” prompting the agency to analyze the air pollutants that will be emitted. The EPA sets the standard for pollutant emissions.
The Washington Examiner first reported on the offshore wind project in July after the Biden administration gave its approval.
The project promises to deliver clean energy to one million New Jersey Homes, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
However, Save Long Beach Island, a coalition of residents opposed to the Atlantic Shores wind project, has raised concerns that the project will raise energy costs, harm endangered whale populations, and cause noise and air pollution, among other concerns.
Since the summer, Save Long Beach Island has been preparing to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration because it believes the wind farm will violate the Clean Air Act.
On Aug. 6, 2024, Save Long Beach Island filed its 60-day notice with the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board of its intent to sue.
Bob Stern — president of Save Long Beach Island and a former Energy Department engineer — raises concern that construction for the 200 wind turbines — just nine miles off the coastline — will pollute the Brigantine National Wilderness Area and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
This protected federal wetland is home to the vulnerable Black Rail and Saltmarsh Sparrow, along with other bird species.
In 1977, Congress designated the Brigantine Wilderness Area to have special air quality and visibility protections under the Clean Air Act.
“The Clean Air Act is designed to regulate air emissions from all sources to protect public health and the environment,” Stern said. “The agency must be held accountable and explain to the public how this approval protects the Brigantine National Wilderness Area.”
Stern points out three concerns with the EPA granting the offshore wind project a Clean Air Act permit.
Stern says the State Implementation Plan for Regional Haze — meant to reduce pollution that causes visibility impairment — does not take into account pollution caused by the construction and operation of offshore wind projects.
Stern also said the air-quality modeling doesn’t accurately depict the pile driving that will occur during construction.
Essentially, the model does not have the right kind of dimensions of foundations for the wind turbines being driven into the seabed, nor does it account for the time to embed the foundations.
Stern also raised concern about the minimal study conducted by Atlantic Shores South into the failure rates and replacement rates for wind turbine components.
“In July, the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Nantucket provided a stark example of how wind turbines can fail when a 350-foot-long turbine blade spontaneously collapsed during testing off the coast of Nantucket and how long it can take to remediate the damage done,” Stern wrote.
The blade that broke off the wind turbine in the Nantucket wind farm was ruled to have a manufacturing defect. Debris from the 351-foot-long blade washed up on several beaches.
Save Long Beach Island intends to compile its grievances with the EPA’s ruling on the Clean Air Act permit with other concerns the group has raised of the project being in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Top image created via AI/Copilot
Read rest at Washington Examiner
This is not the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund or Earth Justice for the Center for Biological Diversity either it just Average American Citizens concerned for the Sea and Shorebirds and the Whales as well and Eco-Freaks just look the other way