Questions the speed of fed approval, $ to foreign firm
OCEAN CITY — News that the Ocean Wind 1 project had received federal approval and that the state decided to provide tax breaks to the Danish company behind it had Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian questioning how the approval could move so fast and why the state and federal governments are so eager to give so much money to a foreign company.
Thursday evening, just after Ocean City Council unanimously re-elected Pete Madden and Karen Bergman as president and vice president, respectively, the mayor dominated the next portion of the meeting with a lengthy statement he prepared beforehand.
It came on the heels of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management giving Ørsted’s wind farm its Record of Decision on Wednesday, followed by the news Thursday that Gov. Phil Murphy approved tax credits for the project. (See related story.)
The mayor said the approval to build 98 wind turbines off Ocean City with a life span of 25 years alone was “triggering” him, and he said the review process moved so fast “it was just an exercise in checking boxes.”
“Despite the thousands of pages of paper masquerading as a complete review of the project’s impact, we still have absolutely no idea what this will cost all the state’s taxpayers and ratepayers and what benefits we might see in return. One thing is certain, everyone’s electric bills are going up. That much we can be assured of by the developer,” Gillian said.
“More importantly, we have no idea what impact this project will have on our ecosystem, our environment, our economy and our health. A lot of politicians are desperate to see clean energy as part of their legacy, but it sure seems in the rush to see green energy the legacy will be an obstacle course of failed and wildly expensive structures running the length of the East Coast.”
Gillian said since the city’s first interaction with Ørsted in 2019, “they have not been straight with us.” He said the city challenged the company to provide facts and details and in return, the state “changed the laws so that Ørsted would not have to deal with us. You remember that. They took away our home rule from a most critical part of our ability to control what happens in our town. As the project itself, that law was passed with unprecedented speed.”
The mayor also went after the federal government for approving a multibillion-dollar project for a foreign company and the state giving tax credits to the Danish developer “instead of the taxpayers of New Jersey where they were supposed to go from the beginning. So they redid the deal.”
Gillian is also bothered by the fact that the wind farm project “all of a sudden” is “turning into a Democrat-Republican thing and it shouldn’t be.” He said the bottom line is what is right for everyone.
Then he hit on the fact that money will be flowing out of the country.
“If we’re pouring billions of dollars into such a venture, it should not be with foreign countries,” Gillian said, then compared it to the 50-year beach replenishment project that took decades to approve more than 30 yers ago. “Think about this,” he said. “The beach replenishment project mandates that only American companies do the work. Let’s not even get into our back bays.” (Dredging the back bays requires approvals from governmental agencies as well.)
“I’ve spent my entire 13 years in office so far leading the charge to take care of that most vital part of our island environment and working with state and federal regulators every step of the way to obtain the needed permits, yet this massive project glides through the regulatory process at light speed,” he said.
“Frankly, this project is a crazy gamble with life consequences. And with so many unknowns, I will continue to call for a credible review of the project’s impact before anything moves forward — and be assured we will continue to fight.”
After he finished reading his prepared comments, he noted how so much care must be taken to protect a portion of beach for piping plovers, “yet this thing is going to cover so many miles of the ocean floor.”
He also compared it to how much red tape the city must navigate when dredging.
“I think about what we’re doing over at Shooting Island right now. I can’t even move mud from Snug Harbor over to build up Shooting Island because of environmental issues. It’s frustrating,” Gillian said. “We play by the rules here in Ocean City. It’s so difficult to do it right. … and I hate even saying it because we’re such a global community right now, but they talk about American jobs and all that stuff … but all this money is going back to another country.”
Referring to the politicians and others at a news conference Thursday on the tax breaks, he said, “I’m looking at how families are struggling yet they’re all smiling and signing, billions here, billions there, and they’re scaring everybody with global warming. OK, we’re doing our part. What’s everyone else doing around the world?
“If they think all these windmills here are going to make a difference … . Show me what a billion dollars is worth. I can tell in the state of New Jersey a billion dollars would go a lot of ways to help so many people.”
He finished with a question of priorities and having citizens holding elected leaders accountable.
“Hopefully one day instead of worrying about what the Kardashians are wearing, maybe we’ll start finding where the money is going because we have lost our way.”
City Business Administrator George Savastano said he agreed with what the mayor said and noted that people should read the documents involved in the project even though they “seem to be designed not to be read.”
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Ocean Wind 1 was more than 1,400 pages and the Final Environmental Impact Statement was more than 2,300 pages.
He said there was circular logic being used in the document when it came time to assess the primary course of action and alternatives, one being no action.
No action isn’t viable, according to BOEM’s Record of Decision, because climate change will worsen, Savastno said, but saying that “doesn’t cut it.”
He said “vague references” to climate change replaced actual specifics across much of the document and as an engineer he expected to see “specific reasons why we should or shouldn’t do something.”
As an example, he cited the aspect of visual impact of the Ocean Wind 1 project, which will have as many as 98 massive wind turbines 15 miles off the coast. The no-action alternative was dismissed “because other wind projects will be approved anyway. (Ocean Wind 2 is planned adjacent to Ocean Wind 1 and two other projects are just to the north, Atlantic Shores South and Atlantic Shores North.)
“That’s circular logic. That doesn’t make sense,” he said. “There’s a reason these projects move slow because you do your due diligence. That’s a large part of the mayor’s point. A lot of steps were glossed over.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff