ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The independent watchdog company of Congress agreed Thursday to look into the impacts that offshore wind improvement may have on the setting, fishing business and different areas.
In a letter to U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the U.S. Government Accountability Office mentioned it might “review matters relating to the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development” within the northern Atlantic space between Maine and New Jersey. It mentioned the overview would come with impacts on “infrastructure and vessel traffic.”
It fulfilled a serious demand of citizen teams and elected officers against offshore wind power.
They cite the deaths of fifty whales off the U.S. East Coast since December, though three federal scientific businesses say there is no such thing as a proof linking offshore wind preparations to the whale deaths.
Further particulars of the inquiry aren’t out there, mentioned Chuck Young, a spokesman for the GAO, a nonpartisan analysis company for Congress on authorities operations.
“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 mentioned. “Those are part of the first steps.”
Smith, whose district consists of elements of the Jersey Shore, requested the probe in May, together with fellow Republicans Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, Bruce Westerman of Arizona and Andy Harris of Maryland.
“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 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,” Smith mentioned.
“It is absolutely critical 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,” mentioned Smith.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat and an aggressive supporter of offshore wind, and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Smith and different federal, state and native officers – most of them Republicans – have known as for momentary or everlasting halts to offshore wind improvement on the East Coast, citing greater than 30 whale deaths since December. But Democratic U.S. Senators from 4 states have additionally requested the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to look into the whale deaths as properly.
In a May letter to the company, Smith requested the scope of the inquiry embrace potential impacts of offshore wind on air and maritime security, together with the operation of radar programs; impacts to air site visitors, together with navy coaching missions off the Atlantic Coast; impacts on business fishing and the marine ecology together with whales and dolphins, and the way properly wind farms could endure storms.
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