A well-known fisherman was quoted by Fox News Digital as saying, “This is the industrialization of our oceans.”
People are worried about how the Biden administration’s plans to build wind farms on millions of acres of public seas will affect the environment and the business.
As soon as he became president, Joe Biden made an order to cut down on pollution from greenhouse gases and stop global warming. When it comes to offshore wind power, his government has been given free reign. A few months later, it was said that the goal was to have 30 GW of offshore wind power working by 2030. It was the most important thing that had ever been said about the topic.
In a speech earlier this month, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said, “Two years ago, President Biden issued a bold challenge to move America toward a clean energy future.” In order to meet this immediate need, officials at the Department of the Interior knew they had to lay the groundwork for a long-term, sustainable, clean energy economy that would give organized jobs with competitive pay.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the 800 MW Vineyard Wind project, which is 12 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, in May 2021. Before this, the government had never approved a wind project this big in the ocean. Before Southfork Wind, the EPA had only given approval to one other big industrial project in the ocean. You could look for it in the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island. It will give off 130 megawatts of power.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of ideas for offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast, but none of them have been approved yet. Off the coast of California and in the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies were allowed access to hundreds of thousands of acres when Vice President Joe Biden was in charge.
The head of the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP), David Stevenson, was quoted on Fox News Digital as saying, “This is an environmental wrecking ball.” It will do bad things to the economy. It also has nothing to do with global warming or other problems caused by nature.
At night, the water looks like a city because of flashing red lights. Stevenson made ACOP to help coastal towns fight wind farms in court. He said that the area in question would look like an industrial area in northern New Jersey.
Some people who don’t like offshore wind power, like Stevenson, have said that the BOEM’s acceptance of some ideas has led to things they didn’t mean to happen.
In February, ACOP warned that wind turbines were making it harder to save people and more possible that ships would crash. If the top of the ocean gets too dirty, it could hurt ocean studies, defense operations, and the marine environment.
BOEM thinks that the industrial fishing business could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
The project was cleared on May 10, 2021, and the record of decision says that Vineyard Wind can’t stop people from getting to the whole wind development area. But industrial fisheries are likely to leave the whole 75,614-acre area because it is hard to get around the turbines because of where they are put.
“It is estimated that the damage to commercial fisheries and loss of economic income will cost $14 million over the 30 years that the Project is expected to last,” it said.
BOEM released the Environmental Impact Statement for the 1,100 MW Ocean Wind 1 project in the summer of 2017. The project is off the coast of southern New Jersey. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says this would have “major” effects on commercial fishing, safe traffic, and beautiful views.
The head of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Bonnie Brady, told Fox News Digital, “This is the industrialization of our oceans.”
Like how a construction site is set up. For this job, one-kilometer-tall steel poles are being driven into the ground with a 4,000-kilojoule hammer that is 30 to 40 feet in diameter. Once the ocean floor has been jet-plowed to a depth of 10 to 12 feet, 100,000-volt lines are laid. The plan will then be carried out, and the results will be looked at.
“That’s kind of a problem,” Brady said. Sea life near this place likes it because it is a good place to hunt.
A Rhode Island fishing company called Seafreeze filed a case in federal court. Brady’s Long Island Commercial Fishing Association is now also a client in the lawsuit. It is being fought in court whether or not the Biden government can accept Vineyard Wind. The lawyer for the case said that this shows the administration’s “steadfast pursuit of increasing renewable energy generation, no matter who it hurts.”
Together, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are bigger than the area where the government rents out land for wind farms. Blades on offshore wind farms can be over 300 feet tall, which is almost three times as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
Brady said, “Now picture us a mile back in both directions and a thousand feet tall in that beautiful Grand Canyon view.” You might be in one of these pictures. In the end, each route goes to the same place.
The plans of the Biden government to quickly expand offshore wind power have been harshly criticized by many different groups for many different reasons. These people include, but are not limited to, scientists, fishermen, businesses, community leaders, government officials, armed troops, and many more.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, has spent most of the last few months blaming the government for not caring about how offshore wind projects affect wildlife in his district, which includes Atlantic City and the whole southern coast of New Jersey.
Vice President Joe Biden wanted to create a “net-zero energy economy,” so government officials rushed through these offshore wind projects without thinking about how they would affect businesses like fishing and shipping. People whose jobs depend on the ocean or whose lives are affected by it every day have also been forgotten. Not enough thought has been put into how these machines will affect the environment, and the military’s concerns about their safety have been ignored.
He said, “This administration doesn’t care about these worries and warnings from communities, stakeholders, and members of Congress because it thinks that industrializing our oceans will save the world by stopping climate change.”
More than 20 whale bodies have been found on the East Coast since the new year began. One of them was a North Atlantic right whale, which is so rare that it is almost gone. Most of the things were found on beaches in New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. Since wind farms were built in the Atlantic Ocean, there have been more whale deaths. Because of this, politicians, local governments, and environmental groups have asked the federal government to stop with these plans.
The deaths of both types of whales have been called “unusual deaths” by the government and environmental groups. Because a lot of people knew about the whale deaths, it’s likely that fewer whale deaths were reported than the real number, which is likely much higher.
Van Drew points out, however, that “the agencies admit that it will make climate change worse,” even though offshore wind is meant to make us less reliant on fossil fuels. They try to get everyone in the country to switch to a green source of energy that is uncertain. Now we can get down to business.
“These industrial wind grids are ways for big companies to make money and for politicians to leave their mark on the world,” he said. To make as much power as we do with fossil fuels, they would have to rent out millions and millions of acres of our seas and lakes.
“A wall of turbines on our horizons for decades to come,” one opponent said, “driving up energy costs for homes and businesses, killing marine life, and destroying industries that have been around for generations.”
Van Drew says that offshore wind projects would only make a few dozen steady jobs because almost all wind blades are made in other countries.
Another well-known saying goes, “The warnings are clear, and our president and government need to listen and act before it’s too late.”