The following letter was allegedly sent from someone within the Army Corp of Engineers:
So you think Ocean Wind turbines will have NO IMPACT on the ocean?
They require carpet bombing the seafloor with sonar non-stop. Who uses sonar? Whales & dolphins.
Punch thousands of holes, 60′ wide by 100-150′ deep. (sorry scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels, crabs, etc.)
Then, build caisons of steel and concrete. A caisson is a watertight structure which is used as an “anchor” for a foundation
Next: erect 1,000 ft wind turbines, with blades 180′ long, spinning at 180 mph. Turbine blades will slice up anything that happens to fly by.
The down draft from blades will impact the sea and waves below. Ever see a helicopter hover over water? Imagine that 24-7. The non-stop sound they emit won’t cause any problems-Right?
How Do Sharks and Rays Use Electricity to Find Hidden Prey? Animals that hide on the seafloor are often masters of disguise. But even the most evasive of prey cannot hide from hungry sharks and stingrays. These predators can detect tiny electric currents radiating from animals like shrimp and small fish. Without using their ears, nose, or eyes stingrays can locate and devour their prey.
Next: Dredge a trough 6 feet deep by 10 miles long back to the shore.
Lay the electrified cable. (Sorry sharks and rays) Re-bury that trough. A great thing for the ocean and it’s inhabitants?
Oh yeah, the onshore existing energy grid and stations can’t handle the incoming power. So, this will require multiple off shore “islands” to be built for new power sub-stations.
Now multiply this from New England to the Carolinas and beyond.
Hope you don’t like seafood. Scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels and crabs will be depleted beyond recognition.
Generations of fisherman. You’ll be going broke.
PSEG just sold their 25% share back to ORSTED, the Danish company who will reap $$$ BILLIONS.
Also, cost over runs.
YOUR electric bill will SKYROCKET to pay for this.
But I’m sure that you know better and this will all work out just fine.
Does wind energy have a place? YES. In the ocean? NO.
‘Regards, stay well and safe.’
Stop immediately or ruin the ocean for a lifetime. The city’s are ruined, the food source is being ruined, look how they handle an environmental disaster in Ohio?
SO TYPICAL OF EVERYTHING THEY DO!!!!
We are speaking of the killing of ocean life. The whales have no voting rights and are not part of an established or independent political party.
Let’s talk life – not politics.
I agree but this issue is being used for political purposes. Follow the money. That’s the only thing most politicians care about.
Wow-I wonder if any of that article is true. Please don’t copy and paste articles without fact checking. I question non-stop sonar bombing, 60 wide holes 100 ft deep and windmills being vertical compared to horizontal helicopters. Sources please. Please be specific to the work being done to prepare for windmills off NJ.
It’s all true! And this is only a summary of the actual devastation. People are not looking into this they’re just blindly, excepting that we need it! It says right in the wind companies plans, that this will do nothing to affect climate change, and will, in fact cause us to use more fossil fuels and emit more carbon! Protectourcoastnj.com
And do u think the free water carriers for the fossil fuel industry really care about what happens to marine life ?? Here or anywhere ?? Do they join protests of buildings that would affect marine animal or bird life ?? Noooooooooooooo …. They’re all triggered/activated by the cult leaders sideshow Bobs… ya gotta giggle
You won’t be giggling when the ocean is ruined, have fun paying your utility bill. Or maybe NJ pays your bill?
Dan, you are waisting your breath. The fossil fuel industry has funded these groups. Most of the members either don’t want to acknowledge it or just love conspiracy theories. Their passion for the environment has been hijacked. Now they are unwittingly fighting to ensure climate change will continue to worsen ocean temperature and acidity plus increase flooding of their pricey beach front properties. Not good for any marine life. Why are the beaches not covered in dead whales now even though mapping is continuing? Why is it that a political party that has never protested for the environment suddenly is impassioned to stop wind energy? Oh, because they love oil and money.
No question that the offshore wind farms are problematic and activity to build them should be terminated. However, we should not politicize it with blaming Democrats. The biggest supporter of wind farms, albeit ones on land, was George Bush, and even the Trump Administration promoted them.
Offshore wind turbines are detrimental to the environment and economy …. period.
To my fellow brethren boaters ~ A friend of mine who boats out of Montauk and explains to me how challenging it is to navigate around five wind turbines off of Block Island, and when it’s foggy out it’s totally frightening experience. That’s five wind turbines. We are going to have 3,400 of them off the northeastern corridor-and 174 of them right off our coast going up shortly, about 12 miles outside of Jones Inlet.
I cannot tell you how insane this whole wind turbine project is, not only from a technological and electrical engineering standpoint, but you can forget about boating as you know it.
I want you to imagine coming home at night from offshore, or even in the daytime in the fog when the seas get rough and then navigating through 174 windmills. And please remember, wind turbines give off an electrical current that causes them to be very difficult to see on radar with ghost readings.
Also imagine being near a wind turbine area and your fuel filter getting clogged and your boat shutting down in rough seas, with or without fog, but especially with fog and in rough seas, and even worse at night.
This whole situation is INSANE with people who have totally lost their minds and truly a disaster on many different levels, including the visual beauty of our unspoiled oceans view, as well as the ripping the ocean floor apart to put in thousands of miles of copper electric cables going to a substation and Island Park-all for the inefficient use of electrical power that will raise our electric rates.
I’m all for Green Energy, but Windmills in Saltwater are a total SCAM, there is no doubt about it-I hope you are all working hard to make people more aware on this page and others and screaming from the rooftops, because the situation is real and the ability to stop it at this point is extremely challenging.
THAT IS A REALITY CHECK!
The publishing of the “letter” is reckless and irresponsible. It is wrought with inaccuracies and exaggerations commonly echoed by pro fossil fuel Trumpers. The fake letter is credited as being submitted by a member of the Army Corp of Engineers to give it validity. Clearly it was not written by someone with engineering experience or knowledge of wind turbines. It’s sad to see so many people so easily manipulated into continuing to support the fossil fuel industry and its disastrous effects on our planet. The continued use of these fuels will kill more of the natural world than renewables. But facts don’t seems to sway Trumpers. They eat right wing lies like it’s high grade sushi. Sad.
This will cause many more problems than it will solve. It will take a big toll on wildlife and fish 🥲
What hypocrites these anti-windmill people are. Do you hear any of them complaining about the tens of thousands of Oil & Gas rigs offshore on our coasts? Not a word from these “johnny come lately,” so called Environmentalists. Now all of a sudden, it’s all about the life of whales and dolphins. As for why their dying sonar is definitely NOT the reason. Sonar is used extensively by every merchant, naval, & fishing boat out there. This is a political hit job on more than just windmills it’s meant to attack the entire green sector. These same people hate Electric Vehicles, LED light bulbs, and solar panels all of it. Who’s behind this attack? Take a guess by starting with the Coal, Oil & Gas Barons for starters and move on to the entire political right. This awful article is nonsense it’s nothing but made-up garbage by an anonymous person or bot.
“allegedly sent from someone within the Army Corp of Engineers,” is the greatest line I’ve ever seen an article open with
“Opponents of offshore wind have said that the sonar used by energy companies to map the ocean floor or the noise from seabed rock sampling might be contributing to the whale deaths, though NOAA and the Marine Mammal Commission say there is no evidence that this is true.
BOEM and the NOAA Fisheries have assessed the potential effects of HRG surveys associated with offshore wind development in the Atlantic. Following a rigorous assessment, NOAA Fisheries and BOEM have concluded that these types of surveys are not likely to injure whales or other endangered species.
BOEM requires developers to use protective measures, such as trained Protected Species Observers, to
avoid whales during these survey activities.
The lies the opponents of the windmills are spewing in bogus articles like this one are outrageous and shameful. The latest are photoshopped pictures of windmills that make it look like the planned windmills are almost in the surf.
Protect Our Coast New Jersey is connected to a right-wing think tank hellbent on stopping green energy. Unfortunately, they’ve been able to misrepresent themselves and their intentions to locals concerned with the uptick in whale deaths….feeding them a steady diet of misinformation.
Nothing fuels conspiracy theories faster than ultra-secretive method this project has been forced on people of New Jersey.
Taking away local control immediately. There’s a reason for that.
Refusing to say how much this is going to cost after handing Orsted a blank check to be paid by anyone who used electricity in NJ only.
We pay to build and bring the technology to fruition while the rest of the country enjoys the benefits? Who knows?
When you ask questions there are never any answers. That kind of uncertainty usually indicates start with a pilot project, not full speed ahead, damn the consequences.
This is a bipartisan issue. ANYONE WITH A HEART OR CONSCIENCE ISSUE! Go to the beach when one of these beautiful creatures wash up.
To the naysayers, 15 active Incidental Take Authorizations, 2 have Level A, 12 more in process, all to include level A right off our coast!
1,000s of whales, that include critically endangered and endangered species. 1,000s of dolphins and 1000,5 of seals. Wake up! You can find this info right on NOAAs site. You can also find expired that show they were surveying when the uptick in whale deaths on the East coast in 2016. The surveying has only grown.
Do your homework before spewing lies and spreading your false narrative or at least do your homework. Last time I checked She’ll & BP were oil companies accused of greenwashing. This just opened Pandora’s box!
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/incidental-take-authorizations-other-energy-activities-renewable?fbclid=IwAR3J6oCLNbpp6Sw_gNcxuvmbDy-49fLeP_d6W0m7ae2zxmOibNgVSgM__fg#active-authorizations
Ro – funny, that with your unproven allegations that it’s the wind farm activity causing the deaths, you left out the HEART and CONSCIENCE regarding proven facts that oil/gas production and extraction has caused 1,600 deaths of people, and the injuries/deaths of tens of millions of fish, marine life and water fowl nationally.
I’m sure that was just an oversight, and not your agenda…
Anybody taking a stand? Pushing back on expensive, experimental, whale & marine-life killing, wind turbines?
All those we THOUGHT would stand up against foreign wind farms built on taxpayers dime, are spineless and weak. Compelled to comply. Or else.
Stockton, ACIT, Rutgers & ACCC = Quiet
MMSC = Quiet
CRDA = Quiet
Greater Atlantic City Business Chamber = Quiet
Margate = Quiet
Longport = Quiet
Real Estate industry = Quiet
Local Green Teams = Quiet
Surf Rider = Quiet
Boating Industry = Quiet
Chris Brown = Well paid to be quiet.
Amazing how people with so much money can build and buy beautiful homes within walking distance of the beach. But so stupid that they back this disaster. The great legacy you’re leaving your children and grandchildren. The wonderful woke rich professional Democrats, just pay big taxes and go out to eat and keep your eyes shut.
Very disappointed in Nick Russo, Mayor of Longport. He supports industrialization of our oceans and killing of whales.
Follow the money!
SEADOG (related aliases) is spreading pro windmill propaganda. People like SEADOG and the state government are the problem. SEADOG will also tell you that there’s no crime or homeless problem.
Excellent article. There are so many negatives, this contributor just added an extra layer of negatives that I didn’t even know abut in addition to ones I did know about….
As a chemical engineer and business advisor who works with firms with new technologies to help our rectify environmental issues, I know a bit about this and other technologies.
Wind turbines going into our oceans are NOT green and are not carbon neutral. They are Carbon positive and NOT a sustainable technology. They are mechanical devices made by a lot of manmade materials and require maintenance and a high amount of petrochemicals to maintain them. Each wind turbine needs 80 gallons of oil as lubricant. Typical wind turbine gear oils have an oil drain interval of 36 months. In addition, when they are decommissioned, there is a high cost of $200,000 per turbine AND, the blades that are made of fiberglass composite create great disposal issues. The most common solution now is to cut the blades down and bury them in a mass blade grave.
There are other, more green, less disruptive alternatives other than these wind turbines. (for example, safe, small modular nuclear reactors – yes, nuclear energy can be used safely and with much less disruption to the environment on a much smaller footprint).
The Ocean Wind 1 Project will have 98 Offshore Wind Turbines, 3 Offshore and2 Onshore substations. They will use nearly 1 million gallons of fossil-based chemicals including 75,000 gallons of Diesel Fuel. In addition, they will use over 50,000 pounds of SF6 which is 23,500 times worse than CO2 (SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas known to date).
Secondly, they will destroy our marine life and the whole ecosystem. The study by BOEM the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) showed an ADVERSE EFFECT on the fishing in the area and also will have an irreversible negative impact on our ocean inhabitants. And finally, aesthetically, it is an absolute DISASTER. It is horrible and will ruin our beautiful shore communities. It will kill our tourism industry and cause our property values to plummet. You can go on the BOEM website and see the renderings of what our “new” shoreline will look like with 100s of these wind turbines along the horizon.
Wind turbines are not a sustainable technology. Sustainability consists of fulfilling the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations, while ensuring a balance between economic growth, environmental care and social well-being. This project clearly does not fulfill this need.
There are no benefits to any entity other than the developer. The negatives far outweigh the benefits. Be a little patient and other technologies will become commercially viable that can help us accomplish our “Green” goals without destroying our environment, real estate values and businesses. So many technologies are available now for carbon credits and helping our environment without destroying it.
Sometimes, you just know when something that sounded like such a good idea or good option is really just going to turn out bad for varying reasons but people and/or government do it anyway…
Write to Phil Murphy. Inundate him with letters objecting to this. And show up to Atlantic city council chambers meeting on Thursday night at 6 to voice your opposition to variance needed to run cables into AC. 1301 Bacharach Blvd., Atlantic City Thursday the 27th at 6 PM.