At the JCAA’s October 31st General Membership meeting, club representatives voted overwhelmingly that offshore windmills should have a “Pause” on their development until questions on key issues can be satisfactorily answered. Some of these questions include: the electromagnetic effects given off from the cables, noise levels created by vibrating windmills over 800 feet high and blades over 300 feet long that may have a negative impact on whales, Cold Pool, death of birds and bats and what would be the electric bill for the average household with windmills that need subsidies. The overall major concern is that the windmills are on a fast track to go up without the environmental review needed to ensure that they do not harm our environment and especially our fisheries.
During the night of this October 31st meeting, we also learned of the stunning news that the developer, Orsted, announced that it is stopping all work on two of its offshore wind farms near Ocean City. Orsted pulled out of its windmill projects due to inflation, high labor costs, and supply chain problems. These same issues will affect other windmill developers and how this affects their ability to continue with their windmill projects remains to be seen.