OFFSHORE WIND CAN HELP ATLANTIC CITY TO REINVENT ITSELF
The offshore wind industry will return to Atlantic City again this week for its
seventh annual convention. Hundreds of developers, suppliers and
manufacturers will gather from around the world in the Convention Center, hotel
lobbies, bars and restaurants to review recent developments in the industry and
to look ahead to what is looming on the horizon.
Four years ago, the last time the American Wind Energy Association
brought its offshore conference to Atlantic City, it saw its largest attendance ever,
with almost 2000 participants. It was a heady time in the industry. Only weeks
earlier, New Jersey had adopted its groundbreaking legislation, the New Jersey
Offshore Wind Economic Development Act of 2010; Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno
gave the keynote address, announcing that New Jersey was “open for business”
and sharing her cell phone number with all the attendees. Cape Wind and the
Department of the Interior signed the long awaited lease for the Cape Cod project
in Massachusetts. Maine, Rhode Island and Maryland were actively planning for a
green energy future, while Virginia and the Carolina were here to learn what they
could. Offshore wind looked like an opportunity not to be missed.
If the optimism of 2010 will seemed tempered this week, it has been
replaced with reasonable expectations of incremental success.
Cape Wind has successfully overcome a relentless program of delay by
litigation as well funded opponents continue to file lawsuits and Cape Wind
continues to win them.
Deepwater in Rhode Island now has the permits it needs to proceed next
year with its Block Island project and is actively planning utility scale projects in
Rhone Island and New York.
And New Jersey’s own Fishermen’s Energy, which has been fully permitted
for over three years has been awarded a $50 million advanced technology grant
by the federal government and has had its own day in Court. After the NJBPU
took 34 months to review and deny Fishermen’s pricing plan, it took the New
Jersey Appellate Courts just three short months to reverse and remand their
finding.
In the past four years the offshore wind industry has faced many of the
same challenges with which Atlantic City itself has struggled:
 Competition: The low cost of natural gas has changed the
competitive energy market. Wind is far too often compared at a
dollar for dollar cost, which fails to acknowledge either the inherent
expense of any start up industry or to monetize the environmental
benefits of energy generation which has no fuel cost or emissions
impact over the life of the project.
 The Economy: The 2008 recession has had long lasting effects,
devastating effects here in Atlantic City and has stalled the
expansion of renewable energy.
 Politics: The absence of a national energy plan, the presidential and
gubernatorial election cycles, the ever changing agenda as it impacts
environmental goals; all combine to focus on quick fixes rather than
investing in long term solutions.
But as we design the new Atlantic City, one based on a diverse economy
rooted in tourism, but growing retail, dining, entertainment, meds & eds, cultural
diversity, aviation, and regional attractions including fishing and boating, ecotourism, wineries and golf, we should not overlook what the impact both locally
and regionally a build out of the offshore wind industry consistent with the New
Jersey Energy Master Plan would mean. The EMP calls for 2000 megawatts of
offshore by 2030, which is the equivalent of $10 billion dollars of capital
investment. Atlantic City is strategically paced at the mid-point of the Wind
Energy Areas designated by the Department of Interior for development.
Fishermen’s Atlantic City Wind Farm would be a 25 MW, $200 million first
step towards that policy goal, and standing alone would provide the following
immediate and local impacts:
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350 construction jobs
15-300 permanent jobs
Shoreside development of an operations and maintenance center
$165 million in capital investment during 2015 and 2016
 Hotel rooms, restaurant meals and bar tabs for the hundreds of
skilled workers from New Jersey and from around the world who
would come here to build it.
The demonstration project is an important first step, one that can be taken
now, but a step towards the development of a significant new industry for the
region. As the Press has recently said, “anything that might bring in more jobs is
welcome.” Let’s put that federal grant to work, let’s realize the promise of the
Offshore Wind Economic Development Act, let’s approve the Fishermen’s Atlantic
City wind farm now. Jobs delayed are jobs denied.
Paul J. Gallagher, Sr., Esq.
Linwood
609-226-7206
Gallagher is co-chairman of the American Wind Energy Association Offshore Wind
Conference at the Convention Center October 6-8, 2014.
http://www.eventscribe.com/2014/OffshoreWP/aaSearchByDay.asp?h=Full%20Sc
hedule&BCFO=P|G
Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel
Fishermen’s Energy, LLC
1616 Pacific Avenue, Suite 400
Atlantic City, New Jersey 08401