BOEM’s existing and newly offered wind turbine lease fields in its Central Atlantic Calls 1 and 2 will egregiously congest the mouth entrance into and out of Delaware Bay and ocean for both shipping and wildlife migration. Already one of the busiest areas of the Central Atlantic, this entire area also sits atop the Carl N. Shuster Jr. Horseshoe Crab Reserve, and now BOEM will offer leases as close as 3.5 miles from our shore. BOEM is causing grave harm in attempting to justify selling more turbine fields anywhere near the Delaware coast and Delaware Bay where massive cargo ships, large ferries, whales, and thousands of fishing and recreational vessels bottleneck in efforts to access or leave Delaware Bay or cross the mouth to New Jersey. Consequently, for BOEM to continue leasing more fields in this vicinity in its CAC2, even before the first fields of CAC1 in this same area are built and tested, is frankly disturbing.
BOEM’s promise to lean on comments from the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard, local town officials and the affected public, as stated during their recent CAC2 webinar, is of no legal value. The hubris displayed by BOEM, and the wind energy industrial complex in general, with its lack of true mitigation for wildlife, for shipping channel congestion and boat safety, for coastal towns and tourism economies, for property values, for the safety of beachgoers, and especially for our national defense is staggering.
BOEM is placing lives at risk of death and livelihoods at risk of ruin to profit foreign entities – all while confusing the public about its abilities to save the planet and change the weather, disregarding the fact that BOEM has already admitted offshore wind turbines have “limited impact on global emissions and climate change.” See BOEM FEIS Maryland Project (Vol. 1 at 3-17).
Given the potential risk to our community with the prevalence of broken turbine blades falling in the ocean here, in the UK and in Europe, sending fiberglass shards into the ocean and sand, causing beach closures and loss of tourism income as experienced in Nantucket, BOEM should confirm here and now it will require upfront decommissioning and liability bonds from the wind turbine entities for each leased project field in CAC2.
For BOEM to continue leasing fields for these unproven and dangerous monstrosities in light of the carbon they produce to construct and maintain, the Vineyard Wind tragedy, the alarming increase of whale deaths, the impingement to fishermen and marine navigation for humans and wildlife alike, and the dangerous fencing in of our shores with diesel fuel-filled structures that disrupt radar and set our nation up for a national defense disaster, is both consciously and criminally negligent such that BOEM’s Central Atlantic Call 2 should cease immediately.
To submit a comment on BOEM’s CAC2 leasing of additional turbine fields off Delaware’s shore, go to www.regulations.gov and insert “BOEM-2024-0040” in the search field. When you see “Request for Information: Commercial Leasing … Central Atlantic 2; Request for Nominations” click directly beneath on the “Comment” tab.
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