Ocean County, NJ Mayors express strong concern and opposition to Offshore Wind Farms

There are several offshore wind turbines along the southern part of the Jersey Shore in Atlantic City, but with word circulating hinting at the idea of Offshore Wind Farms coming to Ocean County, there are mayors looking to nip the proposal in the bud right now.

 

 

There are concerns about the visual impacts wind turbines will have on beachgoers.

 

Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra believes many people may not want to come to the beaches if these wind turbines are just offshore.

 

"I believe very strongly that having these offshore wind turbines within the visual horizon -- which means closer than around 30 nautical miles offshore -- would be nothing less than devastating to our tourism economy here in Ocean County," Kanitra said. "I think that the way that this has been moving -- the speed that it is moving, the fact that it's been moving behind the scenes and that a lot of very shady deals have been occurring in tandem with it -- is something that people really need to wake up to because by the time they see the ships going out there to start building these things, it's going to be way too late."

 

It's not just the wind turbines that would be in the water that's a concern for Mayor Kanitra, but what would happen on the beach itself and with nothing that can be done locally to stop it.

 

"The state passed a bill in the middle of the night about a year ago that essentially supersedes any kind of local ordinances, local zoning, any policies that pertain to infrastructure or having any control over what would happen in our own town in relation to this -- transmission cables coming on shore, infrastructure to help build and maintain these things -- the state legislature said 'we don't care what your town wants and what your town has authorized, we're going to let these companies come in and do whatever they want in your towns' and that was a very, very concerning thing to us," Kanitra said. "Point Pleasant Beach has been extremely vocal from the very beginning about our opposition to these things on the visual horizon."

 

Mayor Kanitra explains there's concern about the optics during the day and at night from these wind turbines and part of the reason why is people want to go to the beach and look at the horizon with unobstructed views.

 

"If you look out onto the visual horizon, and you see what really is our last pristine natural resource in New Jersey covered with wind turbines and flashing red lights at night, it's nothing short of the industrialization of the ocean," Kanitra said. "We're not anti-clean energy, we're anti ruining our tourist economy in Point Pleasant Beach and in Ocean County."

 

 

A red flag for some Ocean County mayors with these turbines being proposed is the damage it could do to summer tourism.

 

In Ocean County (and Monmouth County too) tourism is a huge part of the local economy and there is some pause and concern for the long-term economic impacts wind turbines would have here at the Jersey Shore.

 

"Tourism is the major economic driver in Ocean County," Toms River Mayor Maurice "Mo" Hill said. "If these are visible off our beaches, I think that's going to be a detraction, the efficiency of wind turbines is 20-40 percent and we don't know what the cost is going to be yet, whether the consumer is going to be charged a surcharge to build these."

 

While the beach is a big reason why people come to Ocean County in the summer, another reason for tourists and locals to head towards or into the water is to fish and there's concern about this industry as well.

 

"We do have a substantial commercial fishing industry (in Ocean County) off of Point Pleasant, Barnegat, you've got commercial fisheries -- what impact that'll have if they're out using nets and they've got to be mindful that these are jetting up out of the water -- it could impact the fishing," Hill said. "In some cases, as far as sport fishing, it may stimulate that, but will it impact the commercial fishing -- that's a concern I think also. I can just imagine if these things are placed the way I'm seeing them being placed -- they're going to be close together, so, it's going to be a hazard to navigation out there -- it's just another obstacle you're going to have to be careful of."

 

 

If these offshore wind farms are built, and many are not coming to the beach or beach towns in Ocean County, it could be a big-time problem for these municipalities.

 

There is a big concern that if these wind turbines were to be built in Ocean County, it would be a deterrent that would keep tourists and some locals away who desire unobstructed views and beaches and it would have a direct effect on the local economy.

 

"We don't have the luxury of just taking huge chunks of those who are coming and supporting our restaurants and businesses and tossing them away for a project like this," Kanitra said.

 

Another financial concern expressed by some of the Ocean County mayors is the domino effects wind turbines will have starting with the tourism economy and its impact on beaches, restaurants, and businesses and then onto taxpayers.

 

"The economic impact of this is going to be widespread, just a 10 percent drop in tourism -- if that's all that there is as a result of these -- that's going to cause real businesses to go out and not come back," Kanitra said. "It's going to hurt my residents because of the jobs that those businesses provide -- it's going to have far flung effects across the state and the county that relies on the tax revenue from those businesses and that economic impact."