NJ Announces Additional $2M to Fund Offshore Wind Studies

TRENTON – The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) jointly announced nearly $2 million in additional funding to support offshore wind environmental studies.
The fund is intended to “ensure the safe and ecologically responsible development of offshore wind energy.”
The announcement stated that projects funded so far include the deployment of a whale detection buoy ($602,135), a study to evaluate general species diversity in offshore wind areas ($1.2 million), and a project to increase understanding of the offshore movement of harbor seals ($682,890).
The announcement is likely in part a reaction to the spate of sea mammal fatalities that some members of the public believe is being caused by offshore wind preconstruction activities.
The fund will also provide support for the state’s entry into the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance ($100,000), a nonprofit organization working on fish and fisheries research related to offshore wind.
The funding is through the state’s Offshore Wind Research & Monitoring Initiative (RMI), which the announcement says has provided $8.5 million in funding for “offshore wind-related projects” to date.
For those calling for a halt to offshore wind activities following the sea mammal deaths, the argument has consistently been that environmental studies need to precede development in order to inform construction projects. The announcement made no statement that any scheduled offshore wind projects would wait for the results of any of these studies.
The announcement states that RMI projects are “selected to address the short-term highest priority research needs” which have been identified based on input from experts, stakeholders, and a variety of organizations.
The funding is said to demonstrate “New Jersey’s commitment to regional cooperation and will provide important baseline data for future assessments of changes to our natural resources” resulting from wind farm “construction, operation, and decommissioning.”