6 protesters arrested as onshore testing work for New Jersey wind farm begins
Police arrested six protesters Tuesday who tried to disrupt the start of land-based testing for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm
OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Police arrested six protesters Tuesday who tried to disrupt the start of land-based testing for New Jersey's first offshore wind farm. But the work progressed anyway.
Police in Ocean City, which has become the hub of resistance to offshore wind projects in New Jersey and elsewhere along the U.S. East Coast, arrested demonstrators after the city said they failed to heed four warnings to get out of the roadway.
“There were three people lying in the street,” said Robin Shaffer, a spokesman for Protect Our Coast NJ, a residents' group opposed to the local project and to offshore wind in general.
Each of the protesters, none of whom lived in Ocean City, was charged with failure to disperse and obstruction of public pathways, city spokesman Doug Bergen said.
Mayor Jay Gillian, himself an opponent of the wind farm project, said he wishes police did not have to arrest anyone, but added, “This is how democracy works. I understand their passion.”
Orsted, the Danish wind energy developer, began onshore testing work Tuesday morning to investigate the proposed route for its power cable connecting the offshore wind turbines with the electrical grid several miles away at the site of a former coal-fired power plant in Upper Township.
The work involved cutting holes into roadways, checking on the location of existing utilities and doing soil and groundwater sampling for the project, called Ocean Wind I, the company said.
“Ocean Wind I continues to progress with today’s commencement of in-road site investigation in Ocean City," spokesman Tom Suthard said. «We respect the public’s right
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