New Jersey Study Offers Some False Negatives About Offshore Wind: A Call to Action

On November 30, 2005, New Jersey’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Development of Wind Turbine Facilities in Coastal Waters issued an interim report on the impacts of potential wind energy development off the coast of New Jersey.  The Panel’s Interim Report (available here in both Executive Summary and Full format) arrived at some negative conclusions, finding for example, that the impact of offshore wind on emissions is relatively minimal - and that even those minimal benefits might be outweighed by added emissions during the construction process.  (Executive Summary at 7-8).  And the Report also suggested that offshore wind development could result in a loss of 3000 jobs and roughly $97.4 million in revenues because of harm that offshore wind development would purportedly cause to New Jersey’s shore based tourism industry.  Of course, the Report made no mention of potential employment and economic gains that an offshore wind energy industry might bring, which is what environmental advocate Green Peace concluded in its October 2004 Report, Offshore Wind, Onshore Jobs which examined potential impacts of offshore wind development on Great Britain’s economy.

Even if you have no intention of ever developing an offshore wind energy project in New Jersey, you should be concerned about the inaccuracies in the report.  If these inaccuracies are left unchallenged, opponents of offshore wind - and offshore wave energy - will forever cite the report as justification for not developing our nation’s vast offshore renewable resources. 

Right now, the Blue Ribbon Panel is accepting public comments on the Interim Report.  In particular, the Panel seeks comments on (a) the content and accuracy of the facts and research presented; (b) areas of investigation that have been overlooked or underrepresented and (c) areas of investigation that have been included but may be irrelevant to the costs/benefits associated with wind facilities.

OREC plans to analyze the inaccuracies in the report and file comments either on our own or in collaboration with other industry groups.  But we need your support.  If you have any information or studies that refute the information set forth in the New Jersey report, please email it to us at loce@his.com or soneill@symmetrix.biz.  Likewise, if you would like to volunteer to assist OREC with filing comments, please let us know.

Posted by Ocean Renewable on December 3rd, 2005 filed in Announcements