A Case Of Twisted Priorities
[Update below]
The Murphy DEP just issued a press release announcing the award of $4.75 million to fund various ocean monitoring projects to support their off shore wind program:
NEW JERSEY RESEARCH & MONITORING INITIATIVE MAKES $4.75 MILLION AVAILABLE FOR PROJECTS TO ENSURE ECOLOGICALLY RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF OFFSHORE WIND
TRENTON – The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, in conjunction with the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, today announced that the state’s Research & Monitoring Initiative (RMI) is issuing a request for proposals that will make $4.75 million available for research projects focused on furthering ecologically responsible offshore wind development.
 The funded projects will characterize ecological conditions prior to construction and/or address impacts to a resource during construction. Proposals submitted should clearly and concisely describe what measurements, analyses, or tool(s) are necessary during the preconstruction and construction phases of offshore wind development to achieve this central objective of the RMI. The RMI’s request for proposals is available through the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, which is contracted to handle the administration of the project solicitation and awarding of funds. |
It is not clear whether this $4.75 million is in addition to the $3.7 million announced last March.
First of all, this research should be fully funded by the corporate wind developers. The DEP release implies that some funding is from the wind industry, but it is unclear how much. It represents another public subsidy to corporate wind developers. (see update below for clarification)
Second, the DEP comes right out and admits that the objective of this research is not scientific inquiry, but rather for:
research projects focused on furthering ecologically responsible offshore wind development.
DEP comes right out and admits the “research” is to further[ing] ecologically responsible offshore wind development.”
That’s not “research” that’s “development”.
But more importantly, it illustrates twisted budget and policy priorities.
The DEP closed down the Newark air pollution monitoring station almost 2 years ago, see:
There is no money for that. But there is to subsidize corporate wind.
Ironically, wind power is supposed to replace fossil energy sources who cause the air pollution in Newark!
Yet there is no money for monitoring pollution levels that harm the people of Newark.
[Update – 7/23/24 – On 7/17, I asked the DEP some questions (in bold below) on the source of funds for the wind research. I just received DEP’s reply, as follows:
———- Original Message ———-
From: “DEP OffshoreWind [DEP]” <OffshoreWind@dep.nj.gov>
To: Bill WOLFE <b>
Date: 07/23/2024 3:11 PM EDT
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: wind research
Good afternoon Mr. Wolfe,
Please see the response below to your questions.
Is today’s $4.75 million in addition to the $3.7 million announced in March?
Yes, that is correct. The $3.7 million announced in March was describing projects currently funded by the NJ Research and Monitoring Initiative for offshore wind. The request for proposals that was opened on July 17 is seeking additional research projects with up to $4.75 million available in grant funding for new projects.
Are all the projects announced today fully funded by the wind industry? Are any public funds allocated? Please identify the sources of funding for each project.
RMI funds consist of $10,000 per MW provided by offshore wind developers through Solicitations 2 and 3. The RMI program and its Steering Committee use this funding for regional research and monitoring related to offshore wind by selecting projects that are consistent with the short-term highest priority research & monitoring needs. The entirety of the $4.75 million in grant funding that is available under the July 17 RFP comes from this RMI fund.
Sincerely,
NJDEP Offshore Wind Team