LBI – Save Long Beach Island (LBI), the coalition of citizens dedicated to protecting New Jersey oceans and New shore communities, denounced a federal agency’s decision to approve the Atlantic Shores South project as “misguided” and vowed to continue its fight againstthedestructiveimpactof placing hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean in close proximity to LBI and other shore communities.
LBI – Save Long Beach Island (LBI), the coalition of citizens dedicated to protecting New Jersey oceans and New shore communities, denounced a federal agency’s decision to approve the Atlantic Shores South project as “misguided” and vowed to continue its fight againstthedestructiveimpactof placing hundreds of wind turbines in the ocean in close proximity to LBI and other shore communities.
“The project approved yesterday by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for the construction of up to 195 Wind Turbine Generators and up to 10 Offshore Substations’ off the southern coast of New Jersey is an aberration, no other country in the world is considering a wind turbine project of this turbine size and number within 9 miles off their coastline,” said Bob Stern, president and founder of Save LBI. ”The project violates a number of statutes and must be stopped, which is why we are challenging it in court. We have one lawsuit pending and will be pursuing at least seven other avenues of legal intervention”.
Save LBI proclaims that the Atlantic Shores South project will be destructive on numerous levels, and states that BOEM mentions in its environmental impact statement that it would have a “negligible” impact on climate change. The collation says an intermittent source of energy, will not, by itself, power a single home in New Jersey throughout the year.
Save LBI discusses several potential issues that could come of this project: the wind turbine placement will affect the view of the horizon, the turbines will likely be loud and the noise from the turbine might affect whale migration, the turbines reduce natural shore breeze, the project will be costly for taxpayers, the project does not mitigate sea level rise or climate change, it will affect vessel traffic and it could affect military air radar.
“This is a project in search of a purpose. The Atlantic Shores South project is sheer folly, predicated only on clean and green slogans,” Mr. Stern said. “The agency has never seriously considered any alternative to it, but fortunately we do have laws that discourage such arbitrary agency action”.
