No public hearing will slow it
What was the point of Monday evening’s virtual public hearing on Ocean Wind 1’s plans to divert less than an acre of Green Acres land so it can put transmission lines through the island?
For more than two hours, a hearing took place over Zoom. Ostensibly, it was to allow members of the public to weigh in on whether to allow the wind farm project to use three little parcels on the beach at 35th Street and another little parcel by the Roosevelt Boulevard bridge.
Because the parcels are protected under the Green Acres program from anything other than recreation and preservation, approval has to be granted for Ocean Wind 1 to dig underneath them for the power cables that would run from the wind farm 15 miles offshore through this island to hook up to the power grid at the former B.L. England generating station in Beesleys Point.
Hasn’t it already been decided? We mean not just the Green Acres part, but the project in its entirety.
Before this hearing – and another before it – took place, the state Board of Public Utilities ruled that the easements under this land were reasonably necessary for the construction and operation of the wind farm. In other words, the BPU gave its blessing to move the project forward.
So why have the hearing?
It appears to be another box to check off to give the public a chance to speak even though no one who has the power over the project is listening.
Ocean Wind 1 duly recorded all of the comments and will post a transcript on the project’s website, oceanwindone.com, along with answers to some of the questions raised about the project. (There was no give-and-take over Zoom, just room for comments with a moderator giving each person up to 3 minutes to speak.)
While the public hearing seemed pointless from the project/state side of things, it was almost as pointless from the public’s side.
The hearing was supposed to focus on the diversion of Green Acres parkland in Ocean City. It did just about everything but.
Almost everyone who spoke offered the same views that have been served up for more than a year. It was a chance for people to either vent their spleens in opposition to all things wind farm or show unbridled support for the concept of wind energy to slow global warming.
As the story in this edition of the Sentinel reports, there was pretty much nothing new under the sun revealed in the comments Monday night. Many of the voices who have spoken up multiple times before spoke up again.
Either this project with its 98 massive wind turbines is going to destroy the tourism economy, commercial fishing, kill whales and other sea life while raising energy prices for everyone or it’s going to be a savior for the planet and an economic windfall for New Jersey because of all the green energy jobs it will create.
Rarely is there middle ground expressed.
Better yet, we all would love to know the true economic and environmental impact of this and other wind energy projects – the good and the bad – in time to slow, stop or revise them for the betterment of everyone.
As it is, wind farm projects all seem to be riding a heavy freight train picking up speed on a downgrade with no brakes.