Editor’s note: This letter was sent to Mads Nipper, CEO of Ørsted, the Danish company that is planning the Ocean Wind 1 wind farm project off the coast of Atlantic and Cape May counties.
Dear Mr. Nipper,
We write as concerned citizens and residents of the State of New Jersey, U.S.A. Our groups total tens of thousands of volunteer citizen advocates including more than 500,000 signatories to various petitions supporting our efforts.
The NJ Shore is a national treasure enjoyed by millions who live and work, visit and vacation here and have done so for generations. On behalf of all the good people who love and enjoy the NJ Shore and its communities, please treat this letter as public notice that:
• We oppose your company’s efforts to turn our ocean, coastal ecosystems, and shore communities into industrial electricity generation and transmission power plants;
• We will protect our shore communities, the environment and the lives and livelihoods of all species including the millions of us that reside, work, visit and vacation here against your thoughtless industrialization;
• We will not falter, and we will not stop opposing your developments.
Ørsted is one of many multi-national energy conglomerates undertaking the largest industrialization of a coastal ecosystem in human history. Your Ocean Wind 1 project, currently awaiting a final EIS from BOEM, will be the first project to start construction off of our South Jersey beaches.
As this race to transform our coast and our livelihoods unfolds recklessly, know that public opposition is growing exponentially and will continue to do so. We will do everything in our power to delay and stop these projects from being constructed.
Despite repeated attempts to engage with your company, our concerns and issues have been ignored and dismissed; directing us instead to one-sided claims previously filed in 1,000+ page documents. This display of ignorance and arrogance has kneecapped any public support for such a massive environmental transformation and intrusion into our way of life.
You have managed to avoid any meaningful dialogue with us by interpreting federal and state agency procedures to your benefit and checking boxes while advancing the Ocean Wind 1 project incrementally through the permitting process. Put bluntly, Ørsted’s dismissive treatment of the very people whose livelihoods your project will impact and harm the most has been inconsiderate and insulting. No more. The time has come for this to stop and for you to answer our questions and concerns.
For reference here, we list some of our basic concerns, which have gone largely unaddressed. We include more detailed questions and invite much needed dialogue as an addendum to this letter. (See that online at ocnjsentinel.com.)
• Environmental and ecological – marine, coastal and wetlands
• Endangered and protected species
• Human health, wellness, and livelihoods
• Tourism and economic
• Commercial fishing and seafood stocks
• Avian habitats and migration
• National security
• Recreational boating, for-hire, and party boat fishing charters
• Mariner safety
• Hurricane Risk
• Horizon impairment, noise pollution, flashing lights
• Horseshoe crab habitats and survival
• Historic landmarks
• Electricity costs
• Home rule and eminent domain
• Maintenance chemicals and fossil fuels
• Decommissioning and disaster recovery
• Residential and commercial property values and rents
Your company’s actions in response to our concerns to date have been nothing less than cowardly. You have repeatedly refused to take or answer basic questions, hiding behind lawyers, propaganda, and protective politicians at public hearings and virtual meetings. You have held hearings at times and places difficult for many working-class family members to attend. Announcements for these hearings have been sparse and purposely obscured at times in bushes – yes, in bushes.
More recently, you and your corporate officers failed to show up for a U.S. Congressional hearing held by our elected representatives from multiple states in Wildwood, NJ. The hearing included factual testimony on the impacts of offshore wind. Your absence provided another glaring example of Ørsted’s disdain for our communities as the hearing took place just a few miles from your proposed Ocean Wind 1 and 2 developments. The list goes on.
Further, your reactions to the recent whale and dolphin deaths here have been equally shameful. The carnage, which included 16 protected whales washing ashore in NJ/NY waters in four months, coincided with significant and rapid increases in offshore wind vessel activities in our waters.
Common sense and the data indicate the two events are related. Yet you and your supporters have refused all calls for a moratorium and investigation. Instead, you are engaging in a “no evidence” damage control campaign even as more dead whales and dolphins pile up on our beaches.
Despite these misinformation efforts by you and many on your behalf, the public widely blames Ørsted and other offshore wind developers for the ongoing marine mammal slaughter. In case you are unaware, you are losing in the court of public opinion here. Badly.
Public opposition here will proliferate and intensify once construction starts and people see industrialization up close and witness further eco-destruction first-hand as more dead marine life washes ashore. Ørsted as a corporate brand will suffer and become synonymous with ecological death and environmental destruction along the lines of Exxon after the Valdez crash and BP following its Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Only in Ørsted’s case, the 30-year operating life and fixed nature of the turbines will provide everlasting images of harm.
Respectfully, you have an opportunity now – before a final investment decision and construction begins on Ocean Wind 1 – to pull the plug on this effort with minimal cost to Ørsted’s reputation and shareholders.
We ask you to consider it wisely.
New Jersey is home to proud and passionate people. Our opposition groups are growing and organizing their ranks daily. Our voices are echoing in city councils, statehouses, and congressional halls up and down the East Coast. The Pentagon and Coast Guard are now joining us in raising alarms over National Security and mariner risks posed by turbines off the East Coast.
We will use all tools available to halt the proposed industrialization of our oceans including lawsuits, hearings, investor outreach, voting booths, rallies, demonstrations, corporate boycotts, our pens and voices among others.
Rest assured we will defend our state and national treasure – the New Jersey Shore.
Michael R. Dean
Monmouth County
Apostolos Gerasoulis
Long Beach Island
Joined in support by citizen ocean and environmental advocacy groups: Protect Our Coast NJ, Defend Brigantine Beach, Save Jersey Shore, Save the East Coast, Save the Horseshoe Crab, Guardians of The East Coast, Protect Our Coast Delmarva, Windmills in Saltwater ~ Versus the Voices of Reason, Long Beach & Long Island, South Shore Residents Opposed to Wind Turbines.