OCEAN CITY – Protestors gathered on beaches along the Jersey Shore, July 15, to publicly oppose the ongoing offshore wind farm construction projects.
The demonstrations spanned the coast, ranging from Long Beach Island to various beaches in Cape May County. One of the largest of the protests, held in Ocean City, boasted more than 100 participants.
To demonstrate solidarity, protestors linked hands across the 9th to 14th Street beaches. They donned shirts displaying their opposition to the wind turbines and held signs detailing their grievances with Ørsted, the Danish energy company behind the Ocean Wind I project.
Protect Our Coast, the organization that helped arrange the protests, is hoping to halt the construction and “educate” the public about the offshore wind projects.
Philip Field, an advisory member to the Protect Our Coast board, manned the information table and sold shirts at the Ocean City protest. Field wants to stop the construction of the wind farm before it begins.
Field said, “There is really nothing I’ve seen or read that says, ‘OK, this is a good thing,’ because it’s not even green energy, unfortunately. I’m all for green energy, but this project is not green energy.”
He added, “The first turbine farm is going to be built off our coast here. We figured if we could stop that, the other farms have an opportunity to be stopped. We are here to spread the word. That’s what we need to do.”
Many protestors raised concerns about the visibility of the turbines, both during the day and at night.
Janet McMahon, a member of Protect Our Coast, has been active in the organization’s campaigning. McMahon, who said there were protests on about 40 beaches along the New Jersey coast, takes issue with many physical aspects of the wind turbines.
She said, “I would love to see something good about them, but you’re going to see them. They are going to be 8.5 to 12 miles offshore. At night, they are going to have lights at the top, the middle, and the bottom. There is just nothing that I can find good about it.”
McMahon has attended several congressional hearings, a meeting in Margate, and has helped distribute information to sway the opinions of homeowners.
“We just need to fight it,” she said. “There are some lawsuits that are already in the midst. We are hoping we can slow it down to where the other investors will simply say that it is costing too much.”
Susan Arnao and Renate Johnston are year-round residents of Ocean City. Both joined the protest to send a message to supporters of the wind farm projects and to demonstrate their disapproval of Ørsted’s construction plan.
Arnao said, “We are going to keep paying and paying and paying. I don’t like that a foreign company is coming in and telling us what to do. Suing us, taking our money. How can you allow this to happen? I think our government has failed us utterly.”
Johnston said, “The best part about New Jersey is the Jersey Shore. We all know that, and that’s why we moved here. Now, they are going to ruin the horizon of the Jersey Shore, up and down the coast.”
She added, “The only thing green about this is the money that Gov. (Phil) Murphy is making.”
While some protestors were new to the fight against the offshore wind farm projects, Joe Balkovec has been fighting against the construction for four years.
Balkovec is most concerned about the result that the project will have on the animals, and the disruption that it will cause for industries such as the fishing industry.
Balkovec said, “When you look at a ledger, you would see good and bad. The bad is 10 to one. It’s like an iceberg. You look at an iceberg and you see a little bit up top, and then 90% is below. That 90% is bad, and it makes no sense.”
He added, “Once you review all of this, you say, ‘None of this makes sense’. It really doesn’t. We are all environmentalists, right? That’s why we are here. We like the ocean. None of us want to see it harmed.”
