February 22, 2024 — Reacting to concerns that New Jerseyans have not been given enough time to review and comment on federal plans for offshore wind projects off the New York/ New Jersey shoreline, the nonprofit environmental group Clean Ocean Action held a public forum in Long Branch Feb. 20 to provide citizens with an opportunity to review and comment on the federal proposal.
Many residents, groups and activists are up in arms with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which oversees the development of offshore energy projects.
On Jan. 12, the agency released a 1,400-page environmental review of future offshore wind development off of the New Jersey/New York shore. However, residents were only given until Feb. 26, or 45 days, to review and provide public comment on the document.
“That’s really not enough time,” said Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf.
According to Zipf, the BOEM also did not provide residents an opportunity to be seen and heard in a “traditional” public forum.
“We are very, very concerned that the citizens whose livelihoods, whose quality of life, whose environment (will be impacted) will not face the deciders, the decision makers,” Zipf said.
The report, titled Draft Environmental Review of Future Development of Wind Lease Areas Offshore New York and New Jersey, assesses the potential biological, socioeconomic, physical and cultural impacts that could result from development activities for six commercial wind energy leases in an area off the New Jersey and New York shores known as the New York Bight. These six projects would span 488,000 acres of ocean off the Jersey Shore.