Long-delayed pilot off Atlantic City gets OK from
legislative panel, but some environmentalists argue it’s time to move directly
to full-scale projects
A legislative panel has advanced a bill to allow a small
pilot offshore wind farm off Atlantic City to move forward despite concerns
from a couple of organizations that usually back such efforts.
The bill (A-2485)
would revive the Fishermen’s Energy proposal, a $210 million, 24-megawatt
project three miles off the city’s coast. During the Christie administration,
it was rejected twice by a state agency over fears it would spike bills for
electricity customers.
Proponents of the project argue it would demonstrate the
state’s commitment to aggressively develop an offshore wind industry, a goal
strongly endorsed by Gov. Phil Murphy, in contrast to the policy of his
predecessor.
Getting serious about wind
It won approval from the Assembly Telecommunications and
Utilities Committee on Thursday, with backers arguing it is time the state gets
serious about promoting offshore wind.
“It’s time to get moving again to truly harness the
incredible potential we have in New Jersey for offshore wind,’’ said
Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, a Democrat from Atlantic County and the sponsor of
the bill.
Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, told the
committee the offshore wind potential of New Jersey is the strongest of any
state along the entire Eastern Seaboard. “There’s still value in the
Fishermen’s Energy project,’’ said O’Malley, even though it is only a small
step toward achieving the administration’s goal of developing 3,500 megawatt
offshore wind capacity by 2030.
Without offshore wind, it will be difficult to reach the
administration’s target of having 100 percent of the state’s electricity
produced by renewable energy by 2050, O’Malley said.
Against the wind
But other clean advocates argued otherwise. They argued the
state should focus on building offshore wind farms in federal waters where two
developers, U.S. Wind and Ørsted, have purchased leases to build enough
capacity to provide power to 1.5 million homes.
“We really need to make sure the projects are economically
feasible,’’ said Kelly Mooji, a vice president of New Jersey Audubon, referring
to the Fishermen’s Energy proposal. Mooji also said projects closer to the
coast have a bigger and more adverse effect on marine and birds.
At one time, the Fishermen’s Energy project made sense as a
pilot, but offshore wind has been proved viable not only in Europe but also in
the United States, where the nation’s first wind turbines are operating, according
to others.
“I don’t know if the bill is really appropriate now,’’ said
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We don’t need to
concentrate on a smaller project that has a higher cost.’’
But Paul Gallagher, chief operating officer for Fishermen’s,
countered that the project is fully permitted and ready to go. The pilot calls
for four, six megawatt-turbines to be built about three miles off the resort
city.
If the bill is signed into law, the project would still have
to be approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, and would have to
meet a tough standard that its net economic benefits outweigh the cost to
ratepayers, who will have to pay for the electricity the turbines produce.
Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo, the chairman of the committee,
defended the project in a press release after the vote, citing the enormous
potential of offshore wind. “These projects cannot be delayed any longer,’’ he
said.
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