NJ green energy: Activists worry wind turbines will hurt LBI tourism – Asbury Park Press

Offshore wind: From a turbine in the ocean to your home in the suburbs

New Jersey is moving forward with a plan to install enough offshore wind turbines to power 1.5 million homes by 2030. How do gusts 20 miles off the coast turn into the electricity that lights up your home when you flip a switch?

Russ Zimmer

Could offshore wind turbines spoilthe pristine views of the Atlantic Ocean from Long Beach Island andthe region's tourist economy?

Robert "Bob" Stern, founder of Save LBI, a coalition formed to push proposed wind turbine projects farther from shore,says New Jersey's wind energy projects, as they are currently designed, will harm both.

"People come to this island to get that open vista,to escape, in a way, civilization and all the clutter and noise," the Beach Haven resident said.

Long Beach Island is like a different world from the hustle of mainland living, a place with cooler summer breezes and natural views of beaches and ocean, Stern said.

But all that is at risk, he said, byplacing wind turbines in the view of vacationers and beachgoers.

Gov. Phil Murphy wants 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy to be generated forthe state's electric gridby the year 2035. It is part of the governor's planto reduce carbon emissions, lowerthe state's reliance on fossil fuels, and try and slow climate change across the region.

As a result, New Jersey has committed to purchasing electricity generated by wind turbines that will be built across several ocean lease areas under the administration of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Three lease areas have so far been approved to be developed off New Jersey's southern Atlantic coast: Ocean Wind I and II and Atlantic Shores.

The northernmostof the three projects,Atlantic Shores, would have a wind turbine area that would be 8.7 miles from shoreat its closest approach from Atlantic City. The lease area would have 200 turbines, each stretching 1,049feet tall, or roughly as tall as the Eiffel Tower. According to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management project details, the wind turbines would be visible from beaches along Long Beach Island.

Stern, of Save LBI, said that 80% of theturbines closest to shorewill be visible above the horizon, despite being nearly10 miles away.

Those giant structures, once complete, will drive the island's tourists away, he said.

Save LBI organized a survey of local vacationers and found that abouthalfwould not return to the island once the wind turbines were visible, Stern said.

"It's not cheap to rent the place on the island for the summer," he said. "I think many people, in a way, feel a little cheated if they put down all that moneyand then they go to the beach, and they have to look at industrial structures."

More: Without offshore wind, NJ faces billions in shoreline damage, officials argue

Stern's concerns are shared by Duane Watlington, founder of Vacation Rentals Jersey Shore, a vacation home rental website with about 1,500 listings in Long Beach Island.

"It's going tomake my job a heck of a lot harder to try to help these owners rent their houses out," Watlington said. "You want to have wind energy, fine, but don't put it where it's going toruin tourism."

In 2018, a survey of more than 1,700 beachgoers by the University of Delaware found that 1 in 5 respondents said their beach visit would be worsened by wind turbines located 12.5 miles offshore. The turbines in the survey were smaller, just 574 feet high, then the 1,049-foot high turbinesproposed by Atlantic Shores.

With turbines about 12.5 miles offshore, the researchers estimated that beach trips tothe area would drop by 8%.

The researchers also found that placing turbinesclose to shore 7.5 miles or less would likelyresult in aneconomic loss for a beach community.

The impacts will be felt all along the Jersey Shore, not just in Long Beach Island, said Watlington, of Vacation Rentals Jersey Shore.

"It's going to impact pretty much all the Shore destinations, if they put these thatclose," he said. "This is a threat to this industry, to my business, to anybody that relies on tourism at the shore.This is a threat, and we need to wake up to it."

Tim Feeney, who owns a home in the Holgate section of Long Beach Township, agrees.

"For generations beachgoers have come to the Shore to enjoy the wide open seascape, which they consider the state's natural treasure," he said in an email. "The Shore is our Berkshires, Adirondacks or Yosemite."

More: Jersey Shore wind farms: Feds to lease more Atlantic Ocean space for turbines

The turbines would amount to a "desecration" of the area's natural beauty, he said.

Not everyone in the tourism industry agrees that wind turbines will harm the local economy.

Larry Sieg, president and CEO of Meet AC, Atlantic City's promoter of corporate events and conventions, says the offshore wind industry will be a boon for the region.

"We recently hosted the Business Network for Offshore Wind 2022 International Partnering Forumin Atlantic City, which was a huge success not only for the Atlantic City economy, but also for the wind and energy industries that signed major business deals throughout the conference," Sieg said in an email.

Michael Chait, president of the Greater Atlantic City Chamber, said New Jersey isquickly becoming "the heart of Americas offshore wind industry.

"Atlantic City has innumerable possibilities when it comes to economic and jobs development," he said in an email."With regard to tourism, which of course is a primary part of our economy, we believe that offshore wind and our tourism business can coexist. In fact, we are optimistic that offshore wind may actually boost tourism by bringing in an entirely new assemblage of visitors to our region."

ButRic Bertsch, an Ocean City resident and member of the group Protect Our Coast NJ, which opposes the wind projects as they are currently designed, said he worries about the impacts to communities like his own.

"It's Cape May County. We have… fishing and tourism," he said. "We have no other industry.We dont have any other large business here."

He said the county will suffer the consequences of New Jersey's new experiment with offshore wind turbines, which will harm the tourist experience and block large swaths of ocean from commercial fishing.

"The only brand (in Ocean City) that we have to offer the world is our old-fashioned values, our quiet, our peaceful place to be," said Suzanne Hornick, also of Ocean City and leading member of Protect Our Coast NJ. "This (wind turbine project) really screws with our brand."

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

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NJ green energy: Activists worry wind turbines will hurt LBI tourism - Asbury Park Press