LONG BEACH ISLAND, N.J. /California Newswire – National News/ — Save Long Beach Island (Save LBI), a grass-roots organization with more than 10,000 supporters dedicated to sound energy policies and preserving our shore and ocean environment, has formally petitioned the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to cancel the leases for the Atlantic Shores South and North offshore wind projects and rescind existing permit approvals.
Save LBI has long opposed both Atlantic Shores projects, which portend a number of devastating environmental, social, and economic consequences for New Jersey coastal communities. Project plans call for erecting 357 thousand-foot-tall wind turbines less than 9 miles off the coast of Atlantic City and Long Beach Island, closer to shore than any large offshore wind project in the world.
To name but a few of the many adverse impacts, these projects would:
* Degrade the island’s pristine shore environment and lifeblood tourism economy.
* Obstruct migration of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, whose population has dwindled to around 370, all but guaranteeing its extinction.
* Disturb the behavior of the bottlenose dolphin and significantly reduce its population.
* Compromise national security by impairing the early warning air-defense radar system at Gibbsboro, NJ.
* Degrade the pristine air quality at nearby Brigantine National Wilderness Area, which is afforded special federal protections under the Wilderness Act and Clean Air Act.
* Destroy now submerged archeological sites dating back to the Ice Age, which could shed light on the first humans to come to North America.
* Substantially increase the already spiraling cost of electricity throughout New Jersey.
FLAWED FROM THE START
Save LBI has contended throughout the approval process and in subsequent litigation that the permits issued to the Atlantic Shores South (OCS-A 0499) and North (OCS-A 0549) projects are seriously flawed. The actual impacts of these projects were misrepresented, systematically underestimated, and not fully disclosed.
“The root cause of the many harmful impacts of the Atlantic Shores projects is their uniquely bad location,” explained Save LBI president and co-founder Bob Stern. “Location is the most critical factor in the entire decision-making process, yet it received little attention many years ago when a DEP-led task force approved those sites without full and proper vetting or public input.”
The record shows that many of the negative consequences Save LBI and others have been publicly denouncing for years were not even considered. “Project modifications cannot cure the uniquely bad siting of these projects, which is why the Atlantic Shores South and North lease areas must be cancelled,” Stern concluded.
The Save LBI petition also reminds DOI Secretary Douglas Burgum of the urgent need to:
* Implement the Offshore Wind Directive issued by President Trump on January 20, 2025.
* Address the concerns expressed by candidate Trump raised at a public event in Wildwood, NJ last year.
* Rescind permit approval under the Endangered Species Act to help prevent extinction of the endangered right whale.
* Expedite lease cancellation to prevent further whale injuries when the next migration season begins in December.
The Save LBI petition (available at https://www.savelbi.org/communications) reviews the official criteria for lease cancellation and illustrates how the criteria are met, and how 11 of the 12 legal requirements for such leases are not met. Finally, the petition summarizes more than two decades of incorrect assumptions, mistakes, and process failures in selecting and approving the lease areas. Save LBI believes that these lease areas should not have been approved in the first place, and that if that process is ever started again there is no rational way these leases would be deemed acceptable.
About Save LBI
Save LBI is a not-for profit, non-partisan organization that has been active in ongoing litigation and other efforts to protect the coastal and marine environment from the senseless industrialization of our oceans. The organization is led by Beach Haven, N.J. resident Bob Stern, a Ph.D. scientist with experience in environmental planning and environmental law. He is a former manager of the U.S. Department of Energy office responsible for overseeing environmental protection related to energy projects and the Bureau of Air Quality Planning within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). For more information on Save LBI and its efforts, please visit SaveLBI.org.
Contact: https://www.savelbi.org/contact
For more information click here: https://www.savelbi.org
Link (Save LBI Lease Cancellation Petition): https://www.savelbi.org/communications
Learn More: https://www.savelbi.org/
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NEWS SOURCE: Save Long Beach Island (Save LBI). Story was sourced from a press release issued by Send2Press® and used with permission. View the original story at: https://www.send2press.com/wire/new-jerseys-save-lbi-petitions-trump-administration-to-rescind-permits-and-cancel-leases-for-atlantic-shores-offshore-wind-projects/
