October 22, 2023 — Cape May County’s legal and political battle against a proposed offshore wind energy farm is gaining public support across New Jersey, a state lawmaker told Ocean City business leaders during a forum Thursday that touched on a series of hot button issues.
“We’re fighting against the industrialization of our ocean,” Sen. Michael Testa said in remarks to the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce about the Ocean Wind 1 project planned 15 miles off the South Jersey coast.
Testa and his fellow Republican members of the First Legislative District team, Assemblyman Antwan McClellan and Assemblyman Erik Simonsen, appeared before the Chamber at the Ocean City Yacht Club to discuss the wind farm project, ongoing efforts to curb rowdy teenage behavior at the shore and New Jersey’s controversial health and sex standards in public schools.
Cape May County, Ocean City and other groups have filed multiple lawsuits against federal and state agencies in hopes of blocking the project proposed by the Danish energy giant Orsted. The latest suit was filed this week against the federal regulatory agencies that approved the environmental and construction permits for the wind farm.
The litigation alleges that the federal government violated laws that protect the environment and endangered species, while also failing to properly consider the possible negative impacts on Cape May County’s tourism industry.
Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian and Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio, who also serves as director of the Cape May County Board of Commissioners, are among the most prominent opponents of the wind farm.
Orsted’s project would include 98 wind turbines stretching along the coast between Atlantic City and Stone Harbor. Scheduled to be completed by December 2025, the project would be the first in a series of wind energy farms built off the New Jersey coast.
“Cape May County is ground zero for this issue nationally,” Testa declared of the Orsted project. “All eyes are on us.”