Wind Energy Protesters Rally at NJ Statehouse
TRENTON — About 150 people showed up at the Statehouse on Thursday morning to present Gov. Phil Murphy with a petition to stop offshore wind development along the New Jersey coastline.
The Change.org petition has been signed by more than 485,000 people.
According to Suzanne Hornick, co-founder of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, work out in the Atlantic Ocean to build a series of huge windfarms must be stopped.
She said it's the worst possible idea
She said the survey work being conducted is responsible for the growing number of whale and dolphin deaths and wind energy is the worst possible idea for an energy source in New Jersey.
“We know it’s going to devastate our economy, our ecology, our environment, there is absolutely nothing about this that is going to address climate change or sea level rise or anything else,” she said.
Environmental advocates from the New Jersey Wind Works Coalition disagree
Anjuli Ramos, the executive director of the New Jersey Sierra Club said “it is unfortunate that offshore wind has become so politicized when this is really a scientific issue. We must follow the science, not misinformation, in order to best understand New Jersey’s path to a clean energy and safe climate future.”
Jennifer Coffey, the executive director of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, said “wind energy is absolutely necessary to help us transition away from fossil fuels and keep the impacts of the climate crisis from getting exponentially worse.”
Federal agencies insist there is no connection
Several federal agencies and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection have stated there is no known connection between offshore wind development and the recent spike in sea mammal fatalities, and they have said the uptick in whale deaths has been caused by whales colliding with large ships.
Hornick said marine traffic has decreased over the past 6 months, even as whale deaths have spiked, but it’s important to understand “the geophysical testing that they’re doing can cause, or has been known to cause, whales to immediately panic, rise to the surface, and yeah, they might get hit by a boat.”
She said the development of offshore wind must cease permanently.
“We know that there is nothing clean about this. In fact it’s going to increase our use of fossil fuels, it’s going to increase our carbon emissions, it’s certainly going to increase our electricity rates.”
She’s calling on all state residents to carefully review plans to construct the wind farms.
“Anything that comes with a 1,418-page draft environmental impact statement of all the things that could possibly go wrong is probably not the best choice,” she said.
