New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy dismissed allegations by environmentalists and politicians to temporarily halt work on the massive off-shore wind turbine farm at the Jersey Shore. Some environmental experts have blamed the sudden death of dead whales on technology being used at sea to construct wind farms.
Murphy said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told him whale deaths have been rising since 2016, and that was before his project began.
“This is tragic, obviously,” Murphy said. “They have said it’s been happening at an increased rate since 2016, and that was long before there was any offshore wind activity. It looks like some of these whales have been hit by vessels.”
Clean Ocean Action, a Jersey Shore environmental group is now calling on President Biden’s administration to investigate.
They are requesting the federal government to conduct, “A thorough, transparent investigation of these whale deaths performed by federal agencies with independent, third-party scientist oversight. The public must have access to all reports from the investigation every step of the way.”
COA is also calling for a hard stop to the off-shore wind-farm project until the investigation is complete.
The organization noted that over one million acres across 25 projects are planned in the region at this time.
Danish company Orsted who is performing the work offshore declined to comment on the matter.
The Democrat Party, once the defender of the world’s diminishing whale population, now says progress to ‘save the world’ from fossil fuels cannot take a backseat to save the whales.
New Jersey Democrats and other anti-fossil fuel organizations claim the work offshore is vital to meeting the left’s goal of achieving environmental justice, even if it comes at the expense of the once revered and dwindling whale population.
A New Jersey state senator, Vince Polistina joined environmental groups in calling for a temporary suspension of the project.
“We should suspend all work related to offshore wind development until we can determine the cause of death of these whales, some of which are endangered,” he said in a statemnt. “The work related to offshore wind projects is the primary difference in our waters, and it’s hard to believe that the death of (seven) whales on our beaches is just a coincidence.”
