Jeff Van Drew spent 16 years in the New Jersey legislature as a Democrat.
On Wednesday, the now-Republican U.S. Congressman hammered the body led by his former party as it prepared to pass a multi-billion dollar bailout of the offshore wind industry.
“Installing hundreds of thousand-foot-tall wind turbines over millions of acres with flashing lights on top will forever transform and industrialize our coastline on a scale you could have never even imagined,” said Van Drew who hails from Cape May County.”
The legislation has undergone minor edits in the last 24 hours, but the original version was estimated to be a $2 billion bailout for Ørsted, a Danish company which aims to construct two offshore wind farms within the visible range of the Jersey Shore’s iconic coastline.
“We know that our marine mammals are washing ashore and dying at alarming if not record rates. We know that you won’t just be able to see these offshore wind turbines, but they’ll be close enough that you’ll actually be able to hear them,” the Congressman continued. “We know that our recreational and commercial fishing industries will be decimated and that our economy stands to lose BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of dollars a year from Cape May all the way up to Sandy Hook. We know that the Pentagon has serious navigational and national security concerns with these offshore wind farms. We know that whatever energy actually is generated off our coast will be controlled by foreign governments. We know that utility bills across our state are going to skyrocket and then, to add insult to injury, we’re going to as a result of this legislation send the money intended to mitigate the impact of those rate increases on working families in New Jersey overseas to subsidize the harm being inflicted upon us by greedy foreign owned energy companies.”
“You don’t get to punch the people of New Jersey in the face and then expect us to say thank you for it!” Van Drew added.
