On May 1, piledriving was set to begin at the Empire Wind 1 lease area just 16.9 nautical miles east of Long Branch. Under development by Equinor of Norway this particular federal lease site has been slated for 54 wind turbines in the first of two phases, with undersea cabling originally planned for June towards landfall in Brooklyn. On April 16, the project was officially put on hold.
Following President Trump’s January 20th executive order on the shortcomings of the federal wind leasing process and “potential inadequacies in various environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act,” New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith asked the Secretary of the Interior to review the previous administration’s decision allowing Empire Wind 1 construction to continue. It was Rep. Smith who also urged the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2023 to investigate the impacts of industrial offshore wind on the environment, the fishing industry, military operations, and navigational safety.
The GAO’s final report was released on April 14, which Rep. Smith said vindicated his concerns about wind turbine interference with radar systems while providing scientific justification for an immediate stoppage of Empire Wind 1 – and apparently it did! On April 16, I received an email from another New Jersey congressman, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, saying “Today, congressman Van Drew announced that following his direct engagement with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Justice, the Empire Wind project off the coasts of New Jersey and New York will be ordered to halt construction.” According to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Empire Wind 1 pause will remain in effect until further review.
Given their moniker as the “congressional watchdog” I was expecting a fairly comprehensive report on the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on our fishing industry, particularly recreational fishing. But after personally reviewing the final report (GAO-25-106998) it’s abundantly clear that recreational fishing was mostly an afterthought. Specifically, page 23 of the 62-page document reads “One expert and three fisheries stakeholders we spoke with from different geographic regions said recreational fishermen were optimistic about fishing opportunities near the new wind turbine structures.”
The “one expert” on recreational fishing cited on page 57 of the GAO report is David Monti of No Fluke Fishing LLC. According to OpenSecrets.org Monti is a registered lobbyist in Washington whose firm has been paid roughly $40,000 since 2021 to represent Ocean Conservancy and the American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA). Vineyard Wind’s website lists ASGA as one of the wind developer’s “official fisheries partners,” while Monti claims in his online bio to be “a founding member” of ASGA.
Connecting these dots, and given Monti’s pro-wind work with the National Wildlife Federation’s Anglers for Offshore Wind project, I couldn’t help but think that GAO invited a fox – perhaps as many as four – into their investigative henhouse. I inquired as to the identity of the other three fisheries stakeholders, but GAO’s Frank Rusco said anonymity is granted to GAO study participants. “We have found that this is the best way to get their candid views,” Rusco said.
“In addition to the listed experts, we spoke with four regional fisheries councils and four other industry representatives on the east and west coasts that had commercial and recreational fishing representation,” Rusco said, explaining how these confidential sources represent a large geographic area. That said, Rusco also told me “We were not able to do this work in such a way that guaranteed a statistically valid representative sample of views.”
While the watchdog’s report may have helped pause Empire Wind 1, knowing that this 2-year investigation does not yield statistically valid representative sample of views of the recreational fishing community, I can only hope that Mr. Smith goes to Washington and spearheads a congressional hearing to learn how many rats and foxes slipped past the watchdog and through the henhouse door.
