Another View: Cape May County right to oppose wind turbines

By LEONARD C. DESIDERIO

Beginning in 2021, the Board of County Commissioners of Cape May County took the position that we should oppose the offshore wind project Ocean Wind One, being pursued by the Danish corporation Orsted.  The more we learned about offshore wind, the more objectionable the project became.  

Ocean Wind One would have placed nearly 100 wind turbines as close as 15 miles off Cape May County beaches.  These turbines would have sat atop towers that climbed over 1,000 feet high and extended many fathoms below the waves and into the offshore bedrock.  Each would be surrounded by an acre or more of massive boulders designed to prevent the ocean floor from washing away around each foundation. This would be after hundreds of square miles of the ocean floor were destroyed forever to make way for these industrial energy generating facilities. 

We learned that each turbine would require hundreds of gallons of industrial lubricants, oil and other chemicals in order to operate.  We also learned that each turbine blade would be longer than a football field and be made of fiberglass and industrial foam bound together by chemical adhesives and coated with hundreds of gallons of chemical paints, coatings and fillers. 

Orsted’s Ocean Wind One was to be followed by Ocean Wind Two project and then the Skipjack project.  All of these projects would have been visible from Cape May County beaches and caused the environmental upheaval described above.  At the same time, other foreign big wind corporations continue to pursue nearby projects and Orsted is exploring selling its interests to other developers.

We were right to oppose offshore wind.  Nantucket is a small, barrier island in Massachusetts near Martha’s Vineyard.  Another foreign wind corporation built the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project 15 miles off Nantucket beaches.  Recently, many of those beaches were closed due to fiberglass, foam and other debris washing ashore.  That fiberglass and foam comes from a Vineyard Wind turbine blade. 

Without warning and still for reasons unknown, that turbine blade snapped and about one-third of it broke loose.  Much of the blade disintegrated and a mass of industrial fiberglass, paint, foam, adhesive and other items entered the Atlantic Ocean environment.  That mass quickly covered the 15 miles of open water and began washing up on Nantucket beaches.  Debris is now washing up on Cape Cod. 

This is an environmental catastrophe akin to an oil spill.  Marine life is being affected by hundreds of pounds of industrial materials entering the water.  Businesses are hurting.  Vacationers are leaving and cancelling trips.  The critical tourism economy on Nantucket has taken a devastating hit.  Vineyard Wind warned beachgoers, stating that “the pieces of fiber glass can be sharp and cause cuts if not handled with proper gloves.”  Thousands of pieces of debris have washed ashore and are in the water.

This was one section of one turbine blade.  Had Orsted succeeded in constructing Ocean Wind One and Two and Skipjack, we would have had nearly 1,000 such blades spinning just miles off our beaches.  The failure of turbine blades is not uncommon.  A simple online search disclosed that every brand of turbine blade has seen blades fail and break and three similar blades in Germany broke in this fashion just last year.

Our opposition to offshore wind was criticized as being too political, or in denial of climate change or influenced by the oil industry.  None of that was true.  Our opposition to offshore wind was always about protecting our local economy, our fisheries industry and our way of life. 

We will continue our opposition moving forward.  While we may be in need of alternative energy sources, we have clearly learned that offshore wind is not the answer.  Harvard University has determined that it would take nearly a century for the planet to overcome the carbon generated by building every planned offshore wind project. 

The destruction of the ocean floor and that important ecosystem is unacceptable.  The potential for oil spill-like environmental catastrophes such as we are seeing now in Nantucket are not worth it.  Studies showed that we stood to lose more than 15 percent of our tourism revenue and 25 percent of shellfish fisheries revenue.  Together, this could amount to well over $1 billion in losses for our small businesses and working families. For the moment, we have avoided these terrible outcomes.

I am proud of the efforts that the County of Cape May and our partners from our local business community, our fisheries and environmental groups have undertaken to litigate against the industrialization of our Atlantic coastal environment.  We have dodged a terrible environmental and economic impact, and we must remain vigilant in our continuing opposition.

Leonard C. Desiderio is director of the Cape May County Board of Commissioners.