The office of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) announced on Thursday the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would soon begin a requested investigation into a plan spearheaded by Democrat Governor Phil Murphy to build massive wind energy projects off the shores of New Jersey.
Murphy, a radical leftist from Massachusetts, ordered New Jersey to dramatically change its power grid in the next two decades, setting a goal to generate “100 percent clean energy by 2035.” Offshore wind projects are at the core of Murphy’s envisioned “transition” away from fossil fuels; using an executive order, Murphy commanded the state to generate 11,000 MW of power from wind by 2040.
The two largest proposed wind farm projects in New Jersey are known as “Ocean Wind I” and “Ocean Wind II.” When the state government initially began to campaign for public support for the wind farms, it claimed the projects would be co-owned by the state electric company, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), and the Danish “green” energy corporation Ørsted. Ørsted bought out PSEG, however, resulting in the possibility that a significant percentage of New Jersey’s power grid would be wholly foreign-owned.
The offshore wind projects are extremely unpopular in New Jersey on both sides of the aisle. Jersey Shore residents have organized “save the whales” protests and hundreds attempted to attend an in-district hearing in March in Wildwood, New Jersey, to listen to experts’ concerns on the potential detriments of offshore wind industrialization.
Rep. Smith, alongside fellow Jersey Shore Rep. Van Drew and Reps. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Andy Harris (R-MD), requested that the GAO formally investigate the offshore wind plan in May. On Thursday, Rep. Smith’s office confirmed that the GAO, the Congressional oversight agency, would study potential negative impacts on “the environment, the fishing industry, military operations, navigational safety, and more.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., speaks during the House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on the administration foreign policy priorities on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Washington. (Ken Cedeno/Pool via AP)
“This aggressive, independent investigation into the ocean-altering impacts of the 3,400 offshore wind turbines slated for the Jersey Shore will help address the wide-ranging questions and concerns,” Rep. Smith said this week, “that the Biden Administration and Governor Murphy continue to dismiss as they plow full steam ahead with this unprecedented offshore wind industrialization of our shore.”
“It is absolutely critical,” he continued, “that New Jersey residents understand all the impacts of these offshore wind projects—which will permanently transform our marine environment and seascape and could put our tourism-drive economy at grave risk—before it’s too late.”
Speaking to the Associated Press, GAO spokesman Chuck Young noted that the agency still has to set the parameters of what its investigation will cover regarding the Ocean Wind projects.
“The exact scope of what we will cover and the expected time frames will be some of the first things determined as the work gets underway,” he reportedly said. “Those are part of the first steps.”
The GAO probe would be separate from a proposed investigation into the wind turbines that Rep. Smith introduced in a bill circulating through the House of Representatives in February which Democrats in the Senate have stalled.
In addition to concerns about foreign ownership of the American electric grid, local governments have expressed fears that the “industrialization” of the Jersey Shore, a historic American family vacation destination, would destroy the state’s fishing and tourism industries. A growing number of dead whales washing ashore in New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic generally have also alarmed residents, who fear that sonar used to map the ocean floor in preparation for the installation of the wind turbines is interfering with whale echolocation, causing the animals to die in ship encounters. Still other opponents of the projects note that the turbines may interfere with military radar, and some government data appear to show proposed turbines in sensitive military locations off the Mid-Atlantic coast.
“The fishermen have always been concerned, but it wasn’t just enough when it was just the fishermen,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) told Breitbart News in March. “And now what’s happened is, over time, because of the whales, because of people realizing what these things are going to look like — we’re going to industrialize the Jersey Shore.”
Local organizations have launched campaigns to raise awareness about the wind turbines and pressure their lawmakers to interfere and prevent the development of the ocean.
A poll published this week by New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson University found that only 28 percent of New Jersey residents support wind development when educated on the potential relationship between ocean industrialization in whale deaths, compared to 42 percent who support the development when not asked about the whales. The study found a whopping 24-percent drop in support among Democrats in New Jersey when asked about whale deaths.
“The commercial fishing is extremely upset with the visual observations of dead whales floating at sea,” Brick Wenzel, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey’s, fishing liaison and a longtime commercial fisherman, told Breitbart News in March. “One vessel said they had seen 3 different whales in one trip. Another had parts of a whale come up in their net. Most of the captains are generational fishers and are in their 60s — No one has heard of or [has] seen anything like the carnage being witnessed.”
Supporters of the wind projects and the administration of far-left President Joe Biden argue that no studies show a relationship between the dead whales and wind development.
“At this point, there is no evidence that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration insists in an explanation on its website.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the federal government agency tasked with working with Ørsted on the Ocean Wind projects, claims it is engaging in conversations with the Pentagon to “deconflict” in potentially sensitive ocean territory. BOEM announced in late May that it completed an environmental review of Ocean Wind I in anticipation of approving its construction.
Despite BOEM moving ahead, potentially damning results from the GAO investigation are far from the only concern for Murphy, Biden, and supporters of corporate “green” energy development. This week, NJ.com reported that the facility in charge of building offshore wind turbine mounts meant for the Mid-Atlantic projects is over a year behind its development schedule. Reporters have also relayed tensions between the U.S. government and Ørsted, which is seeking to bilk American taxpayers out of more money from the “Inflation Reduction Act,” a federal law promoted by Biden to redistribute wealth into “green” projects. Ørsted officers reportedly threatened to ditch the Ocean Wind projects last week without more payments. The independent organization Affordable Energy for New Jersey estimates that “Inflation Reduction Act” funds could be worth as much as $2.8 billion in revenue to Ørsted (Ørsted has denied that number).
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