Visiting southern New Jersey this summer, I kept seeing yard signs that read “Stop the Windmills—Save Our Coast.” The posters were rallying opposition to the massive Ocean Wind 1 power project 15 miles off the Jersey shore near Atlantic City. That constellation of 853-foot-high wind turbines is supposed to start construction any day now, although delays and financial uncertainties have hampered the project. Ocean Wind 1 is planned to be one of more than two dozen huge wind projects off the East Coast from South Carolina to Maine.
If it ever gets built.
Which it won’t if the residents of South Jersey have anything to say about it. According to a recent Monmouth University poll, support for offshore wind in the state is dropping fast. In 2019, only 15 percent of New Jersey residents opposed such projects. Today more than 40 percent say they’re against turbines off their beaches. They aren’t alone. In almost every part of the country where large wind farms have been proposed, you’ll see signs like the ones in South Jersey.
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a City Journal contributing editor, cohost of the How Do We Fix It? podcast, and the former editor of Popular Mechanics.
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