Mayor reports on Donohue, Testa meeting with Realtors
OCEAN CITY — Mayor Jay Gillian said a presentation last week before the Ocean City Board of Realtors regarding wind energy showed Ørsted and other wind power companies are now seeking federal subsidies and other concessions.
“The one thing I have realized more and more, they are scaring the hell out of people saying if you don’t do something we are all going to burn up. When you start saying those kinds of things, you realize we really need to slow down,” Gillian said Sept. 28 during a City Council meeting.
The mayor said state Sen. Mike Testa, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, and Michael Donohue, a lawyer and former Superior Court judge who represents Cape May County on wind farm issues, told the board that governors from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island sent a letter to the Biden administration asking for help for Ørsted and other corporations to get more tax credits.
“State officials are beginning to realize that electricity rates could go through the roof under current plans for the rapid growth of offshore wind. They are now scrambling to limit the damage,” Gillian stated in his weekly letter to the public.
“I am in full support of developing clean energy sources, but pouring so much money into a project with so many unknowns can only hurt that cause,” he said. “Local mayors and our state representatives met this week, and we will continue to fight for a responsible approach to meeting our energy needs.”
The mayor said other concession being sought would harm American workers.
“They are trying to bring stuff forward that will give these companies more tax credits, which usually means they should use U.S. ships, workers and steel but they are trying to get waivers. This is really turning into something that is just a cash grab,” Gillian said.
Ørsted plans to build Ocean Wind 1 with as many as 98 wind turbines off the coast of Atlantic and Cape May counties to produce 1,100 megawatts of electricity, part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2024 Energy Master Plan that sets a goal of 11,000 MW of power generated by offshore wind by 2040.
Murphy signed an agreement in July with Ørsted, granting the company a tax break on one of two energy projects it is developing off the coast. Under the plan, Orsted will be allowed to keep federal tax credits that were supposed to be passed to New Jersey utility ratepayers to offset the potential for higher electricity rates.
“It’s bad because it’s so hard to get information, and when you see the politics involved with this now, the more I look into it the more it makes me more nervous,” Gillian said.
Transmission cables from the proposed wind farm are slated to come ashore at 35th Street, run beneath city streets to Roosevelt Boulevard to Upper Township, where they would connect with the power grid at a substation on the defunct B.L. England Generating Station site in Beesleys Point.
“Going right through Ocean City with these power lines — they’re saying they really don’t know what the effect’s going to be,” Gillian said. “It’s absolutely amazing to me. I’m not trying to scare anybody but people really need to pay attention to what’s going on now more than ever. If COVID didn’t wake you up to what this government can do — and I hate to say that because it makes me sound like a conspiracy theorists — we need to wake up a little bit.”
Sewer project
New Jersey American Water’s emergency sewer main repair under West Avenue from Ninth Street to 16th Street is tentatively scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 23.
Restoration work will take place two blocks at a time and extend through the winter. The project will start at Ninth Street, where the intersection with West Avenue will be closed for two weeks as the project starts.
The water company will post sign boards and make calls to all adjacent businesses and residences in advance of the project, and the contractor will preserve access to all businesses at all times. Final paving is expected to be complete before Memorial Day.
Because this project will cause disruptions along one of the main arteries in town, the city will provide regular updates throughout the course of the work.
“We’re going to keep a close eye on this. We have a lot of businesses there and it’s so fragile for so many businesses and every day matters,” he said.
10th Street marina
Two residents of the Glen Cove Lagoon area of the city, between West 10th Street and Walton Place off Great Egg Harbor Bay, spoke out about their fears that a commercial marina is going to open after receiving a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection.
Bob Hellier, who said he is one of the 24 homeowners on the lagoon, provided information to City Council that included the DEP’s approval.
“The permit states it authorizes in-water restoration of site as a marina, allowing for 10 mooring slips in association with a commercial development on the parcel,” Hellier said. “Not only is the property zoned residential, but the homes to the north, south, east and west are all zoned residential.”
Hellier said a group of concerned homeowners found deed restrictions on lots dating to 1908 put in place by the developer, stating no part should be used for the purpose of a public boat house for renting or hiring boats.
He said the group is also concerned about the permit allowing 38-foot-long piers able to accommodate large boats.
“Nowhere in DEP approval is there a requirement for wastewater discharge and collection,” he said.
Hellier said that can lead to contamination and prevent the use of the lagoon for swimming.
“How can we be assured of water quality protections? Many studies show that repeated releases of contaminants build up more and more during tidal cycles,” Hellier said. “We don’t want Glen Cove to be the first lagoon in Ocean City that is too polluted for homeowners to swim in.”
He said the group is now pursuing water quality studies “so we have a baseline if this project comes to fruition.”
Christine Rothstein said the marina would service boats that are too large for a small lagoon.
“Ladies and gentlemen, stop the 10th Street marina. It’s the right thing to do,” she said.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
