Kaleem Shabazz: Facts Don’t Support U.S. Rep. Van Drew’s View on Offshore Wind
Kaleem Shabazz. Photo courtesy City of Atlantic City.
OPINION
I am responding to an Op-Ed against offshore wind recently written by Congressman Jeff Van Drew.
Atlantic City and other struggling towns along the Jersey Shore will benefit from a major investment in clean and reliable offshore wind development. Offshore wind will put our people to work in good paying union jobs that cannot be outsourced.
In the meantime, transitioning to clean energy sources will help close down dirty fossil fuel-burning facilities that jeopardize the health of people who live in communities like mine, where asthma, heat-caused illness, and other pollution-caused illnesses increasingly threaten public health.
Congressman Van Drew is flat-out wrong when he claims that offshore wind puts people out of work and reduces tourism.
The facts don’t support his claim.
In the case of Rhode Island’s Block Island, a vacation destination, tourism continued to thrive after the installation of offshore turbines nearby.
Van Drew calls for more nuclear energy, but since New Jersey’s nuclear sector is well-developed already, we need to add new clean energy opportunities like offshore wind into the mix. We also need to support offshore wind so we don’t fall behind states like Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania in creating clean energy jobs and a healthier and more prosperous future for all our residents.
Kaleem Shabazz
Third Ward Councilmember
Vice President of City Council
City of Atlantic City
1301 Bacharach Boulevard, Room 111
Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Cell (609) 957-0441
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