Ideas clashed on the boardwalk this afternoon as members of the Sierra Club and Americans for Prosperity gave demonstrations about their views on wind energy.
The Sierra Club was the first to claim space on the beach and boardwalk just north of the Casino several months ago, seeking a special events permit from the city, city manager Terence Reidy said. The club distributed literature about offshore windmill while children flew kites on the beach to demonstrate wind power.
“It’s a worldwide day to acknowledge and raise awareness about the potential of offshore wind energy, not just in the United States, but all over,” said Christine Guhl of the Sierra Club.
The club also collected signatures on petitions to be forwarded to Governor Chris Christie.
“We’re really trying to get Governor Christie to move offshore wind forward,” Guhl said. “The ball is definitely in his court right now. He’s got to make a decision about regulations and we want him to move as quickly as possible so that we can get wind turbines moving in the water and get some good, clean energy.”
Clean energy is energy that “doesn’t produce any air or water pollution, doesn’t produce any climate change emissions like carbon dioxide,” Guhl said. “It doesn’t produce any of the terrible health emissions like sulfur dioxide and smog produced by fossil fuels like coal and oil.”
Americans for Prosperity recently decided to launch a counter-protest at the same time. Although they applied for permission to hold a special event at a time that would normally be too late for them to gain access from the city, the nature of their event was protected under city ordinance as a first amendment right, so Reidy expedited the process, he said.
Americans for Prosperity New Jersey is “part of the nation’s premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP-NJ believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity,” according to its website.
The group is headed by Steve Lonegan, who ran in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2009 but lost to Christie.
AFP-NJ staged their rally at the Fifth Avenue beach “to provide a counter-argument” to Global Wind Day, Lonegan said in a phone call today.
“We didn’t want [the Sierra Club demonstrators] to just get out and say, ‘Hey, we have to save the world with windmills,’ without giving the scientific counter-argument,” he said.
AFP-NJ’s main issue with windmill energy is its possible effects on the economy. Lonegan said wind energy is the most expensive form of alternative energy.
“Windmills cannot possible succeed on their own without enormous tax subsidies,” Lonegan said. “Plus the idea of having these enormous contraptions floating around in the ocean is not even logical. The maintenance is outrageous, and they kill birds.”
AFP-NJ is asking Christie to appeal the $100 million of taxpayer subsidies already being granted to wind energy, Lonegan said.
“If windmills are so great, they should stand on their own,” he said. “They should not require enormous taxpayer subsidies.”
[Above right photo of protestors taken from Steven Lonegan’s public Twitter account.]
