OCEAN CITY — A couple of dozen people turned out for the 2nd annual Stop Offshore Wind rally and Bridge Walk on Saturday at Mark Soifer Park, where Republican candidates for state and federal offices criticized the Murphy and Biden administrations for supporting the development of wind farms.
Conservative radio host Dan Klein of 1400 WOND-AM opened the program as the emcee, thanking those in attendance for taking time out of their holiday weekend to attend the event.
“The fact that you’re here demonstrates how important this is to you, us, we, and even the people who aren’t here may not know how devastating this offshore wind project is,” Klein said.
Klein said there are many more negatives than positives regarding the project, which he called “a debacle.”
He listed 9,000 miles of cables being submerged into the sea floor, 579 wind turbines out in the ocean and “complete disruption of our coastline,” claiming wind turbines are operational only 22 percent of the time because they require 26 mph winds to operate at peak efficiency.
Klein also criticized the state Legislature for approving legislation with subsidies for foreign companies to build offshore wind farms.
“These folks can’t agree on where to put a stop sign, yet in one month time, it passed the Assembly and the Senate and was signed by the governor in record time. We the people didn’t even know that it happened,” he said, claiming the legislation is unconstitutional.
Klein alleged that offshore wind farms make the nation’s energy grid vulnerable to attack.
Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast NJ, said the group is against industrialization of the ocean. He said the “grass-roots effort” started small and has “grown and grown and grown.”
“It’s taking over all of New Jersey and they don’t like any part of this project,” Shaffer said.
He said the group has proved that you can fight city hall, although he noted that they did not have to fight Ocean City’s thanks to Mayor Jay Gillian and City Council.
“This city hall is behind us, they are representing the people of Ocean City instead of representing themselves and representing Big Oil and Big Money,” Shaffer said.
Citing a statement from U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the former Democrat turned Republican who vowed his undying support to former President Donald Trump when he switched parties after being elected to Congress, he said offshore wind projects would compromise national defense, the fishing industry, supply chains and the shore’s tourism economy.
“The governor and the Biden administration are willing to risk all of that to chase this New Green Deal, this climate effort that they are pushing on everybody,” Shaffer said.
He criticized the state Board of Public Utilities for approving offshore wind.
“The BPU are supposed to represent the people. Instead of representing the rate payers, they are representing the wind industry,” Shaffer said.
He also assailed the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“The DEP are supposed to be protecting the environment but it’s actually Protect Our Coast that is protecting the environment,” he said. “The DEP is willing to give all of these permits to companies that aren’t even based in the U.S. to come in and destroy our land, destroy our water and for what?”
Shifting to the main point of the event, he said “it’s going to take everyone to stand up, voting this fall, because not only are lawsuits important and legal actions we can take, it’s about you going to the polls and voting. You’ve got to pull the levers for those opposed to this.”
He warned those in attendance that Ocean City won a battle when Danish wind power giant Ørsted suspended its plan to build a wind farm off Cape May and Atlantic counties but the war is far from over.
“This is a big war; we’ve got a long way to go. Ørsted still owns the leases out there,” Shaffer said. “I don’t have a beef with the French or with the Dutch or the Danes; they are lovely people, but tell them to stay the hell out of our waters. We do not need them coming in and raping our ocean, destroying our coastal marine habitat to make a buck.”
Oceanfront high-rise hotel developer Eustace Mita, chairman and CEO of Icona Resorts, said Gov. Phil Murphy and state agencies that approved offshore wind farms lied about them not being visible from the beach, noting Revel casino resort in Atlantic City is 15 miles away and can be seen easily from the bridge onto the island.
Mita, who had proposed building a massive oceanfront resort next to Gillian’s Wonderland Pier that would encompass the entire block between Fifth and Sixth streets in Ocean City, also said the turbines would be neither efficient nor clean energy.
“The fact is it costs 300 percent more to get power from wind than it does not just from fossil fuel but also from solar,” he said. “Every day the sun shines; every day the wind don’t blow.”
He said he had been in Amsterdam less than 24 hours earlier and claimed that of the hundreds of turbines off the coast, very few were spinning to create power.
After removing his shirt in the crowd, exhibiting his bare upper body to adults and children alike, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciatarelli said what he loves about the offshore wind issue is that is “unites young and old, black, white and brown, liberal and conservative, Republicans and Democrats.”
He said he was there “on behalf of millions in the state and I believe the majority of the state do not support windmills off the Jersey shore.”
“When I have the privilege of being your governor, there will be no windmills off our jersey shore,” he vowed. “This is bad economic policy, bad environmental policy and bad energy policy.”
U.S. Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw, owner of Cape Resorts and Congress Hall, an oceanfront hotel in Cape May, said he was grateful to those advocating “to protect our Jersey shore and keep it beautiful.”
“I am running for this race because to make change we’ve got to stand up and be counted and put ourselves out there,” he said, noting Democrats have “had a monopoly on our Senate for over 50 years and New Jerseyans are fed up with it.”
“We’re running to take back a Senate seat for Republicans this fall,” he said, noting that the gubernatorial race is in 2025 and that Ciatarelli could “end the windmills as our governor.”
“We need Senators in Washington to end the windmills. I want to work with President Trump and we need to put this to bed,” Bashaw said.
– STORY and PHOTOS by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
