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Plan would make room for windmills at local piers
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TRENTON — Legislation introduced Monday could make it easier for windmills to sprout on piers across the state.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, would lift the ban on energy facilities within 500 feet of the mean high tide line.
Current state Department of Environmental Protection regulations only allow power plants that use the water for cooling — such as the Oyster Creek Generating Station in Lacey Township — to be built near tidal waters. These regulations have thus far kept operators of the Steel Pier in Atlantic City from building several proposed windmills.
Van Drew said he introduced the legislation after Morey’s Piers in Wildwood asked him about it and others have talked about it. Pier representatives could not be reached Tuesday afternoon, but Van Drew said in the right circumstances, windmills on the piers would be ideal.
They work as a tourist attraction, he said, and they send out the right message.
“We’ve got to stop talking about doing this stuff and actually do it,” he said.
The bill is sponsored in the Assembly by his district mates, Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matt Milam.
State Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, proposed similar legislation earlier this year but limited the appeal to Atlantic City, after the Steel Pier sought him out. He said he had no opinion on Van Drew’s proposal.
Jeff Tittel, executive director of the state Sierra Club, said there had been battles throughout the state over the siting of windmills, with coastal regulations making it hard to build them on piers.
“Right now, it’s easier to put up a Ferris wheel and a roller coaster on a pier than it is to put up a windmill,” Tittel said. “And in Atlantic City, it’s easier to build a casino on a pier than it is to build a windmill.”
He said the state needs to make it easier to put up windmills if it wants to be serious about fighting global warming.
Anthony Catanoso, president of the Steel Pier, said Tuesday that plans are still going forward to build five windmills on the pier that dates to 1898. He said he is working with a Trenton firm to lobby the DEP into changing regulations. Once that is done, he said he would go to the resort to seek its approval.
Catanoso leases the pier from Trump Entertainment Resorts, which restored it in 1993 after a fire and years of neglect. While the company has considered replacing the rides and games with a hotel or luxury condominiums, the company’s financial problems and the economy make those plans less likely.
In June, Catanoso showed state lawmakers plans to generate as much as 3,000 megawatt-hours per year via four to 10 turbines, standing 121 feet tall with a 69-foot blade radius. All rides would remain open.
The windmills, jutting 1,000 feet out into the ocean, would spin year-round. His goal, he said, is to completely power the pier, which is open six months out of the year, through the windmills.
Contact Derek Harper:
609-292-4935
Posted in BREAKING | CAPE MAY | ATLANTIC CITY | ATLANTIC on Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:00 pm Updated: 9:45 pm.
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