Ventnor, Margate and Brigantine were hoping to win a concession from NJ DEP. The three beach towns wanted a neutral reviewer of DEP offshore wind permitting law.
That issue lost in court. That was one shot we had taken during litigation, said Ventnor Mayor Lance Langraf.
Ventnor, Brigantine and Margate joined together to form Defend Brigantine Beach and Downbeach Alliance.
Landgraf: I’m not opposed to offshore wind. I’m opposed to it being 9 miles off our beach. They should be further off our coast.
All it is: money.
Wind companies can’t run cables more than 2,000 feet without having basically, a manhole in the ocean. A junction box. They want to keep these junction boxes to a minimum.
Mayor Landgraf: That’s their only argument for not putting (wind farms) further off the coast.
The transmission of electricity degrades over (longer length) of the cable. They can only lay 2,000 feet of cable at a time. A junction box is then added.
BOEM. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Federal agency already on board with this as they’re pushing it.
I ask questions, I don’t get answers. It’s monotonous.
It’s very frustrating that they’re ramrodding this project down.
They did explain this though:
There’s several historic structures in Ventnor that are going to be negatively impacted.
It says just that in their environmental impact statement.
And the way they’re going to handle that? They’re going to pay those historic property owners off. They’re going to pay them money for the degradation of their historic structure.
They’re going to set a dollar amount and they’re going to pay them back. The pier is one of them. City Hall is another. There’s a house in St. Leonard’s tract that’s in the historic registry.
Example of the infamous Nunzio case: I’ll buy you a fire truck if you grant me this variance.
Offshore Wind vs Whales.
On April 11, 2024, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center received a call reporting a deceased 20-30 foot long Humpback whale in the surf at 51st street in Long Beach Township, NJ.
Your obvious insinuation is that it was from wind farm prep. The number one cause of whale deaths world wide has been and continues to be vessel strikes – and the shipping lanes have never been more crowded. The second most common cause is illness.
Maybe the whales are striking ships because their sonar is screwed up by the testing procedures.
Not True! Please research rather than believe that the media is telling you. Also be aware many national politicians supporting the industrialization of our ocean and coastline by foreign companies and countries are also investors. That’s just what NOAA and BOEM WANT you to believe. They can use plausible deniability because NOAA is NOT doing the level of necropsy necessary to determine if anything negatively impacted the cetaceans. We don’t know if the whales were already dead, maimed, in a panic or in pain when and if it was hit by a ship. In many cases there is no actual evidence of a ship struck or entanglement but that’s what we’re being told. If the geophysical testing and seismic activity (sonic bombs) are not affecting cetaceans (whales/dolphins) why has the federal government authorized a certain number of kills per species per wind farm ? Go here to read 2 independent studies which show a little of what’s actually happening vs what the government is telling us is happening. https://randacoustics.com/
Excellent job, Mayor Lance Landgraf. Appreciate you speaking up and educating yourself and others on the issues.
Very clear how these offshore wind developers “buy off” their opposition. I’m glad that you’re not allowing Ventnor City to get bought off.
Very disturbing that they don’t answer yours and others direct questions. That’s because they’re waiting for their approvals to be passed through without having any type of transparency with the issues and adverse effects that they already KNOW exist.
Thank you, Mayor Lance, for questioning the DEP, who is “allegedly” responsible for our environmental protection while fast tracking these things in our ocean that are far from being green.
What?! The Ventnor Fishing Pier will be affected???!!!!! JUST SAY NO! The infrasound hum from the cables will harm the fish, the fishermen n those who use n work on the pier! Please don’t let this happen. It is the destruction of one of the gems of our town.