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The plans to build coastal wind farms animated fierce debate among residents and visitors alike.

A sign dedicated a Christmas tree on 9th Street to the whales that have washed up traces their deaths to "wind development and sonar mapping," a conclusion disputed by scientists. Beach Christmas trees have proliferated in Jersey Shore towns, many with their own themes.
A sign dedicated a Christmas tree on 9th Street to the whales that have washed up, tracing their deaths to “wind development and sonar mapping,” a conclusion disputed by scientists. Beach Christmas trees have proliferated in Jersey Shore towns, many with their own themes.

    By Amy S. Rosenberg, Philadelphia Inquirer

    The plot lines of the ocean wind energy drama in New Jersey were never boring. Dead whales drove initial opposition, then, after a long battle, a change in the White House got the whole thing canceled.

    In New Jersey, the plans to build coastal wind farms animated fierce debate among residents and visitors alike. Were the wind farms necessary to help stave off climate change, which would threaten coastal communities? Would fields of turbines ruin the Shore for visitors?

    Did it matter what they looked like? Was the construction of fields of enormous turbines itself an assault on the environment?

    In this Sept. 18, 2024 file photo, a billboard supporting offshore wind power projects sits on a roadside near land-based wind turbines in Atlantic City.
    In this Sept. 18, 2024, file photo, a billboard supporting offshore wind power projects sits on a roadside near land-based wind turbines in Atlantic City. Wayne Parry / AP

    Despite generous tax breaks and the full-throated support of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, the biggest New Jersey projects are now off the table, with the two remaining unlikely to proceed with President Donald Trump’s pause in the leasing of federal land within the Offshore Continental Shelf.

    Under Murphy’s guidance, the state had sunk $1 billion into building the New Jersey Wind Port in Salem County and support for a monopile facility built at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal in Gloucester County. Monopiles serve as the foundations for turbines. Murphy was counting on the wind industry injecting $4.7 billion into the state’s economy and creating nearly 10,000 jobs.

    The first blow came on Halloween night 2023, when Danish company Ørsted suddenly backed out of both its projects, which would have had the capacity to produce 2.2 gigawatts of renewable energy, enough to power over 1.5 million homes.

    Read the full story here

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