Ørsted reps spend over 3 hours in Ocean City answering questions about wind farm, hearing people support and condemn plan
OCEAN CITY – Ørsted representatives spent more than three hours Saturday morning and afternoon answering questions about the Ocean Wind 1 wind turbine farm proposed off the coast of Cape May and Atlantic counties and listening to a wide range of speakers heartily support and thoroughly condemn the project.
The Danish company had about 10 different employees on or by the stage to respond to a wide range of questions posed by the crowd of about 200 people who came to the Ocean City Music Pier.
The event started with a PowerPoint presentation on the wind farm, which is now in the environmental review phase. Ocean Wind 1 proposes up to 98 wind turbines starting 15 miles off the coast in a lease area in the Atlantic Ocean that would be operational by 2024 if approved after review by federal and state agencies. It would generate 1,100 megawatts from the massive turbines whose blades would reach 900 feet above sea level.
Citizens and representatives of various groups took their turns at the microphones to ask questions, but most took the opportunity to offer their strong opinions on the project, prefacing their questions with statements of how they are for or against it. Other questions came in from online or were submitted on cards for the moderator, local meteorologist Dan Skeldon, to read.
Much of the opposition to the wind farm came from local residents angry about having to look at the wind turbines filling the distant horizon, asserting they will destroy the natural beauty of the Jersey shore, damage the region’s tourism economy and lower property values. They also questioned the wind farm’s value in the global fight against climate change.
Much of the support came from business and organized labor organizations who touted the project’s impact on providing jobs and economic development in the region. They, as well as citizens, both local residents and from other parts of the state, said they wanted to see this area at the forefront of green energy production.
The crowd was generally polite, with a little sniping, but dwindled as the meeting stretched deep into its second and third hours. Hearty applause often broke out as speakers offered their pointed opinions both pro and con.
Below are comments and questions from many of the speakers (not in order), ranging from residents telling the company to move the wind farm farther from shore to protect the local economy to former Gov. Jim Florio saying the project needs to move forward to protect freshwater aquifers from saltwater intrusion due to rising sea levels. Also included are answers by the Ørsted representatives.
VOICES: Asking questions, offering opinions
Here are some of the voices raised Saturday during the Ocean Wind 1 forum at the Ocean City Music Pier in a mix of comments on the proposed wind farm and questions.
Craig Stuart: You can push wind farm farther away from shore
Full-time Ocean City resident Craig Stuart said after talking to numerous friends, family members and neighbors, the biggest question everyone had was why Ocean Wind 1 couldn’t be located farther from shore so local residents would not be able to see it.
He said instead of 15 miles to 27 miles out (the proposed location now), why not 20 to 27 miles out or 24 to 27 miles out?
QUESTION: “Can you commit to pushing the wind farm as far away from shore as you can?”
ANSWER: Ørsted’s Maddy Urbish said there can’t be any construction outside of the lease area that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has identified and it couldn’t go farther out than the 27 miles, where the lease area ends. She added Ørsted has a separate lease area contiguous to the site of the Ocean Wind 1 project to the south.
“We have chosen to locate the turbines as far back as possible while still meeting the goal of 1,110 megawatts. The straight answer: We cannot move any further back.”
RESPONSE: Stewart said he could take a pen and show how to put the turbines further away on the map shown during the presentation. He also asked if Ørsted could appeal to the federal government to move the turbines.
Ørsted’s Pilar Patterson said there were many interests and concerns that had to be addressed. One of them, such as putting the turbines closer together, would not meet the need for space that commercial and U.S. Coast Guard vessels require to operate by keeping the turbines 1 by 1.8 nautical miles apart. She added the public will have a chance to question BOEM during the public process in the spring.
QUESTION: What is the cost to each homeowner to construct the wind farm?
ANSWER: Urbish said the average cost to residential homeowners across the state – all New Jersey ratepayers will get this charge – is approximately $1.46 per month for the life of the project. Those costs would be for only the Ocean Wind 1 project. (There are other wind farm projects proposed for off the coast; no utility costs for them have been announced.)
QUESTION: Will there be any financial benefit to the local residents because of the project?
ANSWER: Urbish said there are the larger benefits of helping to fight climate change and flooding, but Stewart said he didn’t care about that. He wanted to know direct benefits to Ocean City.
Urbish said as a community hosting Ocean Wind’s transmission lines, Ørsted would work with the community, including City Council and the mayor, who asked about that very thing, to decide what types of benefits the company could provide. She said the company would absolutely consider that.
Nicole Fox: Good for city to be a crucial player in the shift to green energy
Nicole Fox said she is a proud fourth-generation Ocean City High School graduate and an environmental science student studying at Stockton University. The community, she said, is important to her and her family.
She supports the Ocean Wind 1 project and said it provides the opportunity for the town to be a crucial player in the shift to green energy. She said that shift will support her future, her children’s future and generations to follow who will also be able to enjoy the wonderful Ocean City community.
“That will be hard to do if the city is under water,” she noted, pointing out the resort already has to deal with sunny day flooding.
QUESTION: Are there plans to study the turbine foundations as artificial reefs for oyster and mussel beds?
ANSWER: Urbish said Stockton is doing some incredible work on coastal resiliency.
Ørsted speakers also said there is evidence from the wind farms off Block Island, off Virginia and in Europe that the bases of the platforms create havens for fish and studies are being conducted on the abundance and types of fish species. The company will conduct studies before, during and after construction to monitor any changes. The company “is committed to contributing to the body of science and knowledge” on the impact of wind farms.
Janice B. Holden: We’re investing in clean energy future
Janice B. Holden, who said her family first settled in Ocean City in the 1800s, said she was shocked that tourists and residents would be upset and angry about the construction of turbines off the coast. She said many residents look the other way at trash by the roadside and the construction of huge McMansions on the island.
Turbines will show “our innovation in New Jersey and our freedom from foreign imports. I think we’re investing in our grandchildren’s clean energy future.
Beverly McCall: Turbines will show innovation in southern NJ
QUESTION: As the chair of the Pro New Jersey Grantor Trust that has $15 million from Ørsted to invest in women- and minority-owned businesses, McCall asked how those businesses can be incorporated into the supply chain.
ANSWER: Urbish, noting it takes time with new industries to ramp up their supply chains, said Ørsted established the trust so private grants will help those businesses prepare to enter the complicated procurement process involved in the wind farm industry.
Cables surfacing elsewhere: Will they stay buried on this project?
An audience member noted how her research indicated the Block Island, R.I., wind farm had issues with power transmission cables being exposed and four of the turbines there stopped over the summer because of those cables coming to the surface. She said offshore wind farms in Europe were having problems where the cables connected to the bases of the structures holding the wind turbines.
QUESTION: What will Ørsted do to protect transmission lines?
ANSWER: Ørsted’s Daniel Broderick said the company has been studying the problems at Block Island and with the connections to the foundations. He said Ørsted will be burying the cables “significantly deeper” at the Jersey shore and researching how to change the connections to make them more robust. He said the company takes the issue seriously and will be improving its designs with the monopiles at Ocean Wind 1.
Leona Louderback: Worried about the noise from the wind turbines
Ocean City resident Leona Louderback said she is opposed to the project.
“I see nothing good coming out of it. I see a lot of negatives. I think it is well publicized what negatives are,” she said. Not wanting to repeat the same concerns as others, she asked about the noise issue. She said she heard people who live near turbines hear a high-pitched noise that makes them feel uneasy and uncomfortable.
The project, she added, makes no sense.
QUESTION: Why here? Why not in places where people have more power oppose them? There is corruption, power, money and control involved, she said, adding, “I don’t trust the experts.
ANSWER: Broderick said the turbines do make noise while operating, but it’s usually quieter than the sound of wind powering them. He said if people were on a boat near the turbine, the boat’s engine would be louder than the turbines. He was just at Block Island where the turbines are three miles from shore. It was a windy day, the turbines were producing at full power and no sound from the turbines could be heard from shore, he said. Ocean Wind 1 will be 15 miles from shore.
Where will transmission lines go?
QUESTION: Will there be new rights of way required for the transmission cables that run through Ocean City to the former B.L. England site in Beesley’s Point, Upper Township?
ANSWER: Jason Kalwa said for the most part, Ørsted will be using the existing rights of way via existing roads in Ocean City. One exception will be at the Roosevelt Boulevard bridge. There the transmission cables will be buried rather than run along the bridge.
In the presentation before the Q&A, Ørsted’s Pilar Patterson said the transmission lines would come ashore around 35th Street and run along Roosevelt Boulevard. She noted they would be buried around 50 feet beneath the surface of the dunes and 3 feet deep in the rights of way. In the ocean they would be 6 to 8 feet below the seabed.
Michael Chait: Ocean Wind good for job growth, local businesses
Michael Chait, president of the Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce and lifelong resident of Atlantic County, said Ocean Wind 1 will contribute to the state’s clean energy goals and reduce the reliance on foreign petroleum products.
It will accelerate job growth, employing 1,000 construction jobs during the construction (which would take place in 2023 and 2024) and another 69 full-time jobs at a maintenance facility in Atlantic City for the 25-year life of the project.
He said it also will help the businesses in the supply chain.
Question: How do small businesses take advantage of Ocean Wind 1?
ANSWER: Urbish said businesses can take advantage in a variety of ways with many tiers of suppliers and contractors working with Ørsted, from general contractors, engineering firms and suppliers all the way down to those who provide catering.
She said in Europe and the United Kingdom, where the wind industry is more mature, communities grow around wind farm projects because of workers frequenting local businesses, eating in local restaurants and shopping locally to buy supplies.
She encouraged businesses to go to the supply chain registry on the Ocean Wind website (oceanwind.com.)
What about bubble curtains?
QUESTION: Will bubble curtains be used during construction?
ANSWER: Ørsted’s John Duschang said because underwater noise is a concern for marine mammals, offshore projects including Ocean Wind will use bubble curtains – air projected in columns from the bottom of the ocean to the surface – to knock down the sound of the construction to mitigate or stop it from traveling long distances. He said part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) review includes “stringent requirements” to protect creatures under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
QUESTION: With a wide continental shelf, why was the site chosen off of Ocean City?
ANSWER: Urbish said the short answer is that the federal government chose it.
Patterson further explained there is a long federal process to choose the lease areas for wind projects involving the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). They look at a wide range of factors including the impact on fishing, wind availability and others. There is a detailed analysis online of the scoping hearing, she said.
Vicki Clark: Ørsted must coexist with fishing and tourism industries
Vicki Clark, president of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, said the wind energy industry must coexist with the commercial fishing industry and the county’s $6.9 billion tourism industry.
It is important that Ørsted and BOEM talk to the commercial and recreational fishermen because they know the waters best and have real concerns about fishing lanes and historic fishing beds. She noted BOEM is “moving fast” with ocean projects and that is why she is making that plea.
She thanked Ørsted for putting Ocean Wind 15 miles off the coast because the turbines will be difficult to see with the naked eye. Clark said she would like a guarantee that the future projects – Ørsted is proposing an Ocean Wind 2 to the south of Ocean Wind 1 – will be just as distant.
QUESTION: What investments will there be in the county tourism industry if the turbines cause a drop in tourism revenue?
ANSWER: Urbish said Ørsted and Ocean Wind 1 partner PSEG want to be good community partners and they believe in coexisting with a wide range of industries.
She said the company’s experience in other parts of the world is that there has never been a negative impact on tourism and studies show that is unlikely at the Jersey shore as well.
Ørsted’s Kara Gross, the project’s liaison to the fishing industry, said historically the team has had hundreds of “individual engagements” with individual fishermen and has hosted workshops for them. Those led directly to changes in the layout of the project because fishermen were concerned about being able to navigate through the wind farm to get to their fishing grounds offshore.
The project, Gross said, is oriented to provide several lanes of transit through the wind farm from major fishing ports in Cape May, Atlantic City and Barnegat Light.
Carpenters support project for creating sustaining jobs
Andrew Bulakowski, counsel for the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters and also reprinting millwrights and piledrivers, said a lot of members are residents of Cape May County and they applaud the project.
“We appreciate the opportunity it will generate to create well-paying, long-sustaining jobs for our members,” he said, pointing out how they have lost B.L. England and the Oyster Creek nuclear generating station as employers.
Ocean Wind 1 will go toward meeting energy needs in a green, reliable way, he said.
As a Cape May resident and licensed captain, he said he shares concerns with most folks in the audience and believes Ørsted is going out of its way to address those concerns.
Former Gov. Jim Florio: Project needed to protect our aquifers
Former Gov. Jim Florio said he wanted to comment on the Ocean Wind 1 project because he has a house in Sea Isle City and has been to Denmark to see the wind industry in operation.
He said as sea level inevitably rises, New Jersey is in a crisis situation because of the shallow continental shelf. As sea level rises, salt water will jeopardize the freshwater aquifers that supply the drinking water in the state.
He said the project also is important to create jobs and development in the state.
“No force is more powerful than an idea whose time has come – the idea of dealing with climate change and dealing with clean energy. Keep up the good work,” he said.
Eric Ford: Ocean Wind will produce American-made energy
Eric Ford is executive director of the New Jersey Energy Coalition, a diverse energy association representing all sectors of energy in the state along with skilled union labor and small businesses.
He said as the father of two small kids with another on the way, his family has ben coming to Ocean City every summer for generations and will continue to do that. He was in the resort 13 times this year and the Ocean Wind project won’t deter them from returning.
He said if he’s lucky, he’ll be able to vacation here with his grandchildren just as his father and grandfather did before him. Ocean City is a place to make memories in. “We know we can bring our families here.”
He said they should make sure the Ocean Wind 1 project moves forward because it will create 1,100 megawatts of clean, American-made power and allow the U.S. to be more energy independent from other nations. He said it will create jobs now and in the future, from large businesses to small. It also will benefit Stockton and Rowan universities because of the programs they can have to be part of the future of wind technology.
Tom Rotondi: Good faith is not possible with Ocean Wind
Tom Rotondi, an Ocean City Council member who lives at Fourth Street and Bay Avenue, said there isn’t any credibility behind the project.
“You say you want to work with our town and county. To date, I don’t see how that is possible or in good faith,” he said.
He pointed out how the state Legislature quickly passed legislation, signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, that stripped home rule. (The legislation gave the power to a state agency to decide the use of rights of way for projects such as the wind farm, instead of local communities, which normally have control over those decisions.)
He said that bothers him because he’s an environmentalist who loves the ocean and woods.
This is the first project of many. so Ørsted is going to have to negotiate with towns up and down the East Coast, he said. What it did was take away the ability for towns all along the Jersey shore to negotiate in good faith. “If you’re telling us you’re going to look after us in the future, when you already took away our ability to defend ourselves in the present, it’s kind of hard to swallow,” Rotondi said.
QUESTION: What was the thought process behind taking away our ability to defend our towns?
ANSWER: This project has not taken anyone’s rights away, Urbish said. That was state action. “I will say that we are here today, we have been in Ocean City many times before, to have these types of information sessions. We have worked hard to make sure we are as available as possible.”
We are here to listen, take in your feedback, answer your questions. We have had meetings with the government body. We’re here to work with the community. We hope our actions will speak loud. We’re here today to listen to you and take into consideration your questions and feedback.
Sharon Quilter: Planet in danger; can we speed up the process?
Sharon Quilter said she is a climate leader and Rutgers=certified coastal steward. She also said she is a Hurricane Sandy survivor front Ortley Beach. “We were ground zero because the city planners didn’t put up dunes because residents thought they would affect their views.”
QUESTION: How can we accelerate the implementation of this program because we are out of time on this planet?
ANSWER: Ørsted is working within the federal process and timeline.
Lenore Tedesco: Climate change poses greater risks to ecosystem
Dr. Lenore Tedesco, executive director of The Wetlands Institute, said climate change is the biggest threat to coastal ecosystems and that impacts can already be seen, including to tidal marshes which are at the risk of drowning.
Those marshes support more than 75 percent of commercial fisheries and more than 50 of endangered bird species.
The survival of the marshes depends on the ability to mitigate climate change, she said, and renewable energy must be at the core of efforts to mitigate climate change. Offshore wind is a key tool.
All energy production poses risk. Risks posed by offshore wind have been studied and will continue to be studied. The risk to wildlife is low and outweighed by the benefit to the coastal ecosystems that support the wildlife. The science is clear, but there is more to learn.
QUESTION: What are the plans to continue studying offshore wind projects?
ANSWER: Kara Gross said Ørsted has plans with Monmouth and Rutgers universities to do robust studies on fisheries and will be doing sampling to discover the types of fish in the area. They are also studying black sea bass and pelagic fish (those not near shore or near bottom). There are 11 total studies Ørsted is doing for fisheries monitoring, she said. Surveys will be done before, during and after construction.
Catherine Perry, environmental manager on Ocean Wind, said there is a comprehensive cooperative research project on abundance and diversity of fish in the offshore environment and they are doing a radio tagging telemetry study on red knots to see their movements and migratory patterns. In addition there is study of the submerged aquatic environment in Barneget Bay on a benthic habitat assessment of what is on the sea floor
Ed Rowland: Sleight of hand in wording about the project
Ed Rowland of Stone Harbor has several questions. He ask about the language on the PowerPoint presentation slide about the automated aircraft detection system being used to activate warning lights atop the wind turbines. It says “you planned” to install them, he said. “That’s a bit of sleight of hand,” he added.
QUESTION: Why the softer language and are those systems now being used commercially in North America?
ANSWER: Patterson said because the project is under review by federal and state agencies, they use language like “planned” because those agencies can change Ørsted’s project.
Another Ørsted speaker said those aircraft detection systems are in place commercially, including some in New Jersey.
QUESTION: Rowland asked if Ørsted will publish a list of all the organizations and groups it is giving money to – those “whose palms have been greased by Ørsted and who is legitimate?”
ANSWER: Urbish said there isn’t a list but that Ørsted provides funding to a wide range of organizations and has “no problem” discussing them.
QUESTION: Rowland said the cost of building a gas-fired plant equates to $33 to $45 per megawatt hour of power. What is the cost of wind farm energy?
ANSWER: When Urbish said she would have to look up the answer, Rowland said he already knew. It is $98.02 with 2 percent increases each year, he said. “The point I am trying to get to is the energy is two to three times the cost of what a typical gas-fired plant would be.”
He said he appreciated that all the Ørsted representatives would take the time to do the question and answer session, “but to come here and you don’t know the answer to what the cost is to people, you should be embarrassed.”
Christina Renna: Chamber always advocates for economic growth
Christina Renna, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, said her organization is the largest business group in the region with 1,100 members from Burlington to Cape May counties.
She said the group always advocates for economic growth, especially in new industries because that will spark positive growth in jobs across the board.
QUESTION: How can the project really benefit overall the southern New Jersey region and specifically in Cape May and Atlantic counties? How will it help grow small businesses as well?
ANSWER: There are broad-based benefits through the state and in southern New Jersey. Ørsted is supporting creation of the monopile facility at the Port of Paulsboro where there should be 500 full-time manufacturing jobs. In addition, there will be indirect benefits for ancillary industries and good opportunities for small businesses. The monopiles are what support the turbines and the blades.
Ben Dziobek: Think about future generations, not financial benefits
Ben Dziobek, president of the Environmental Club at Stockton University who said he was also representing young voices from the League of Conservation Voters, was not focused on the financial benefits of Ocean Wind 1.
“It is very upsetting as a young person to be hearing what is the financial benefit, what is this or that benefit of these (wind turbines) being here,” he said. “The benefit is your children being able to live on these barrier islands. The benefit of this community is not being underwater. Your house prices are going to go through the ground when your houses are underwater. I see people protesting about whales outside. The whales will not survive in an ocean that is too hot. Our fisheries will not survive with ocean acidification as the salinity increases.”
QUESTION: Is this going to be a benefit to my generation?
ANSWER: Urbish said a lot of the people who work for wind projects are doing it because of the priorities he brought up. She said the state’s determination of awarding the project in 2019 came after deciding the environmental and economic benefits of the project outweighed any costs.
She said with an almost 2-year-old at home, she personally believes in decarbonizing energy production “as one of the strongest ways we can push back against climate change. That’s my personal view.”
Patterson added that as a proud new grandparent, she was thinking about the next generation. She said the federal government uses a term in its review called “purpose and need.” The Ocean Wind 1 project has to prove purpose and need. “We believe we have successfully done that,” she said.
Suzanne and Mark Hornick: Why spend $20 million on lobbying?
Suzanne and Mark Hornick of Ocean City asked a range of questions. Suzanne asserted Ørsted went to Gov. Murphy to ask that home rule over rights of way be taken away, that past studies on wind projects aren’t valid because they haven’t been done for turbines as large as the ones proposed for Ocean Wind 1, and that BOEM said there wouldn’t be an impact on climate change because of the Massachusetts Vineyard wind project, so why would it be different for Ocean Wind 1.
She also said Ørsted couldn’t move the Ocean Wind 1 site because it is already planning three more wind farms. (Ørsted has formally applied for Ocean Wind 2 on the lease area south of Ocean Wind 1.) In addition she asked about the danger to the environment of using a particularly harmful substance, SF6, being used as a lubricant and if coastal resiliency studies had been performed.
Hornick also wasn’t happy that the long forum included those from outside the area.
“This is supposed to be for Ocean City people and a lot of us are very resentful that a lot of these groups are coming in and taking our time away from us,” she said.
ANSWERS: Urbish said Ørsted couldn’t move the wind farm site back because of multiple reasons, including prime fishing habitat to the east of the lease area.
She said Ørsted is open to suggestions from the community on coastal resiliency studies and that the second round of funding in the Pro New Jersey Grantor Trust will include grants for those studies.
Ørsted’s David Hinchey said the SF6 gas (sulfur hexafluoride) is used within switch gears and allows them to be made smaller and safer to operate. That insulator gas is sealed within the equipment and is recovered for maintenance. It is all within a sealed system, he said.
As to the impact on climate change, Urbish used the example of taking a gasoline-powered car off the road and replacing it with an electric vehicle. That would be a drop in the bucket. It is similar for a single wind farm, she said, but with more and more clean energy projects, people would see the impact over time.
Ørsted’s John Duschang added that BOEM isn’t just looking at a few wind farms. It is considering them all along the East Coast, in the Gulf of Mexico and on the West Coast.
Mark Hornick asked if the potential carbon reduction savings (estimated at 110 million tons of CO2 over the life of the project) included the times when other types of power generation are needed when the wind farms aren’t operating.
Ørsted’s David Hinchey said the calculations take into account only when the wind farm is running and its total impact on carbon.
Kathy Ingham: Renters horrified by idea of turbine farm offshore
Kathy Ingham said she drove down from her home in Valley Force, Pa., because she rents out a house on the beach block of Sixth Street that she has owned for 17 years.
“Every single one of my renters that I ask about this is horrified and does not want to see this and neither do I,” she said. “Our community is America’s Greatest Family Resort. They come here for the beaches and the beaches were made by God. That’s what it looks like.
“I’m strongly opposed to this.”
She said their right to communicate their feelings was being taken away. “I strongly object to that. This is still America.”
She said while she has heard people at the event talk about the environment, jobs and businesses, she was concerned about tourism and property values.
Ingham said she was glad to hear that the lights on the tops of the turbines would only be on for a total of a few hours over the course of the year (only activated when planes fly into that area).
QUESTIONS: Have you done a study on the impact of tourism? Are our property values going to go down? What will happen to the resort? Have you considered building on land or other locations that won’t impact our shores and is there another wind farm that far off the shore we can check out?
ANSWERS: Urbish said in the company’s experience over the last 30 years they had not seen a negative impact on tourism or on property values in communities that can see the wind farms.
John Duschang said part of the Environmental Impact Statement that BOEM is working on includes tourism and recreation impacts, not just environment. “The bureau is very much aware of the issues,” he said. “It’s not just about whales and wetlands.”
Richard Grist, real estate manager for the Ocean Wind 1 project, said he is from the United Kingdom and now lives in New Jersey.
He said there is no evidence from any of Ørsted’s wind farms that they cause a negative impact on property values. He did note that this can be subjective, because people buying properties consider a range of factors in their decisions, such as whether to be close to a main road or near a store and others care about the view. He said it is impossible to gather clear data because of that, but across the U.K., where there are thousands of wind turbines in the water, there is no impact on property values.
Grist said it is the same with tourism. It’s very difficult to say why someone does or doesn’t visit Ocean City, but with their experience in the U.K., there was no overall impact on tourism. However, he said that’s hard to compare with the U.S. because there are only nine turbines in U.S. waters.
Urbish added a survey showed seven in 10 voters say they vacation at the Jersey shore and 85 percent said they would still vacation there is they could see wind turbines 15 miles off shore.
NOTE: An audience member interjected that a study from the London School of Economics showed wind farms could knock as much as 12 percent off property values of homes located within 2 to 14 kilometers from a wind turbine.
Donna Moore: Can Ocean Wind use floating platforms instead?
Ocean City resident Donna Moore said she read about emerging technology for floating wind turbine platforms being considered for the deeper waters off of California.
QUESTION: Is Ocean Wind set on installing monopiles on the ocean floor or is there time to change course?
ANSWER: Duschang said locations with deeper waters are looking into floating technologies, but because of the timeline of the Ocean Wind 1 project, they won’t be commercially available in time here. However, they could be available for future projects. He noted that there are still engineering and environmental issues that need to be considered with the floating platforms, which still have an imprint on the ocean floor because they require anchors.
George Constantino: Money for beach erosion, flood mitigation?
Ocean City resident George Constantino said Ørsted is investing $15 million in small businesses.
QUESTION: Can beach communities use some of the money to mitigate beach erosion and flooding?
ANSWER: Urbish said Ørsted officials are eager to talk with the mayor and council in Ocean City and in other communities to see how they can be a good partner on that front. In the long run, she noted, projects such as Ocean Wind 1 are meant to help mitigate sea level rise and deal with the problem.
Robin Shaffer: What’s the point if other countries keep burning coal?
Ocean City resident Robin Shaffer wondered if there was any overall value to the project.
QUESTION: What’s the point of trying to mitigate greenhouse gases here if big countries such as China and India continue to burn coal?
ANSWER: Patterson said no single project is going to make the difference and that it will take everyone working together to impact climate change. She said there’s not reason not to do their best to help with carbon reduction.
Charles Durkin: Why destroy the natural beauty of southern NJ?
Ocean City resident Charles Durkin said he’s horrified by the pictures of the turbines and that millions of visitors come to Ocean City and love to take pictures of the natural beauty here.
He said the same thing is true for the Grand Canyon, where millions go to see the natural beauty.
QUESTION: They wouldn’t put a wind farm at the Grand Canyon so why are you doing it at the Jersey shore?
ANSWER: Patterson said the short answer is that Ørsted is working with the federal government and the location off the coast is what it made available for wind farms.
Lisa Montgomery: Dynamiting ocean floor is not a good idea
Lisa Montgomery pointed out there are other ways to get to green energy and she sees no reason for the project. “I don’t see how dynamiting our ocean floor is going to make our environment better. If you have to spend $20 million convincing people it’s a good idea, it’s not a good idea.”
Kris Ohleth: Don’t apologize for these ‘beautiful machines’
Kris Ohleth said she is a forever New Jersey resident and a 44-year tourist to New Jersey beaches and will be thrilled coming to the shore once the turbines are visible.
“There’s no need to apologize for the visibility of those beautiful machines,” she said. Tourism will continue robustly. She said Block Island tourism increased every year since the turbines were built off the Rhode Island coast.
She said she worked for four years for Ørsted and left in January to elevate herself to a national position. Now she has a sense of the project on a national and global scope.
She called Ocean Wind 1 the “crown jewel” of wind farm projects and congratulated Ørsted on its development. She said it will have one of the least impactful imprints on the environment and the least impact on commercial and recreational fishing that she’s seen.
She said it’s responsible development has been endorsed by the New Jersey Audubon Society.