Public Hearing Tuesday Night On More Proposed Jersey Shore Wind Farms

LONG BRANCH, NJ — Clean Ocean Action is hosting a public hearing Tuesday night on the federal government's plans to open 488,000 more acres off New Jersey for wind farms.

The hearing will be held in person from 5-8 p.m. Tuesday at Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch (1 Ocean Blvd.). Free validated parking.

However, for those who cannot attend in person, the hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/NMeUtQpp-rM?si=3B88SifyHUIOWJ3h

On Jan. 8, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published this "Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Expected Wind Energy Development in New York Bight." These are plans from the federal government to open up 488,000 additional acres of the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey for wind turbine farms.

That Jan. 8 announcement kicked off a 45-day public comment period that ends next Monday, Feb. 26.

However, Tuesday night's hearing will not be led by the federal government; it will be led by Clean Ocean Action, a Jersey Shore clean water advocacy group that has been highly critical of wind farms in the past.

Clean Ocean Action calls Tuesday night's hearing "a citizen hearing."

"The hearing serves as a forum for people to offer public comments for the record on the environmental impacts of the six massive offshore wind areas off the New York/New Jersey coast," they said.

Clean Ocean Action says they will have a professional court reporter on hand Tuesday night who will "record citizens’ comments and submit the comments to BOEM for public record by the February 26 deadline."

Clean Ocean Action also asserts that this winter "BOEM did not provide an opportunity for verbal testimony at an expected traditional, in-person public comment forum, resulting in many community voices not being heard. In addition, BOEM only provided 45 days for the public to review and provide comments on the 1,420+ page technical document."

No wind turbine construction has started yet off the Jersey Shore. Not a single turbine has been built, although last year some companies did start sonar mapping of the ocean floor to see where to build the turbines. In January, Equinor/British Petroleum (BP), announced they were canceling plans to build a wind farm 19 miles off Long Branch, saying it had become too expensive. BP was the second major company to do so, with Orsted backing out of their wind farms off Atlantic City in October.

BP Terminates Empire Wind 2 Farm; 2nd Jersey Shore Wind Farm Axed (Jan. 4)