“Now that taxpayers are getting an honest look, the offshore wind projects off the Monmouth County coastline simply don’t measure up to hype,” said Congressman Chris Smith this week, regarding the news that two firms have cancelled their contracts for the project.
Smith said both BP and Equinor have cancelled their contract for the Empire Wind 2 project two months after Orsted rejected the subsidized proposal approved by Governor Murphy.
“The promise of benefits and jobs was always over-hyped and predicated on the backs of taxpayers,” said Smith, in expressing pleasure over the contract cancellations.
Despite the clear indication that these projects are economically unsustainable and pose serious dangers to our marine environment and national security, President Biden and Governor Murphy have rejected calls for objective studies, doubled down and insisted that these projects must continue—no matter the huge taxpayer subsidies they require and the credible predictions of big increases to ratepayers, Smith said in a press release issued yesterday.
“It’s long past time for Biden and Murphy to stop recklessly pushing these unsound and improperly vetted projects and trying to prop them up by irresponsibly throwing billions of US taxpayer dollars at these foreign corporations,” the Congressman added..
Smsith said the cancellation of the contracts marks a victory for concerned residents, environmentalists and commercial and recreational fishermen and added:” we must continue to fight and put an end to ocean wind development off our beautiful shore. Enough is enough.”
