Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey representative Interview

Jeff Van Drew joins Mendte in the Morning to talk about the off shore wind project he has fought against. Jeff discusses why he opposes the project and the role he had in the order than Trump signed to end that project.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have always really appreciated South Jersey Congressman Jeff then
Drew for many reasons, but one of the main reasons
is he was in the forefront of fighting against those
wind farms off the Jersey coast. I remember rallies he
held on the beach in South Jersey. And now they
are going to be no more. As you probably heard,

(00:21):
funding is being pulled by not only Governor Murphy, but
by Donald Trump and Governor I mean major Governor Jeff
and Drew. Representative Jeff then Drew is on the phone
right now. Thank you, sir for spending some time with us.
And congratulations your efforts finally paid off.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh thank you, Larry. And it's great to be with
you again and good to be on your radio show.
So yeah, this was a lot. It was a lot
of years, and you know it started out. I was
like everybody else, so you know, we should evaluate these things.
It's what about some beautiful windills in the ocean. I
really don't try to remember, not to even fall them
windmills anywhere, Their winds fur mines. They're big industrial units.

(01:09):
Excuse me, they're over a thousand they're over a thousand
feet high and they would really dominate the ocean in
the landscape.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, and there was there were so many problems. That
was just part of it. I mean, the way they
were going to dominate the landscape was a big deal.
But it turns out almost everything we were told about
those wind turbines was untrue. They were going to be costly,
they hurt the environment, and go no, you can go
through the list better than I can. It was. It

(01:43):
was a bad idea from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Very bad idea. So right from the very beginning, once
you really started to look into it, they would we
would have had the highest windmills anywhere in the world,
the highest number of them. It would have dominated the landscape.
But even more importantly than that, what it did to
the fishing industry. And of course they were very concerned,
they were involved, They worked shouldered or shoulder with me.

(02:08):
What it did to tourism, what it did to the Wales,
what it did to the ocean and the environment, what
it did as far as concerns with national security, because
they really could potentially interfere with radar, and then worst
of all, I mean it's all terrible, but what it
would do to the ratepayer. So understand that the ratepayer

(02:28):
advocate is somebody in the state of New Jersey who
it really advocates for the people who have to pay
the utility rates. It's not a Republican, it's not a
Van Andrew person. It's somebody I put there by the administration.
The ratepayer advocate, who is part of the Board of
Public Utilities, said that our utility rates were going to
go up a lot, and I want everybody to understand

(02:51):
that would be in North Jersey, and in South Jersey
and along the East coast, it would be everywhere. These
things are extremely costly. Many of them have failed in Europe.
There was just no reason to do them. And when
I say race would go up lowry, I'm talking about doubles, cripple,
maybe more. And they just kept going to shove them
down our throat. And we would have been beholding to

(03:13):
foreign countries because most of the companies involved in this
process were foreign, and we would have been beholding to
them for our energy. It was nuts, It was really bad,
so we bought the fight. It was the whales that
really got everybody focused when the whales started dying when
they were doing the sonic testing, and then my friendship

(03:34):
with President Trump, and you know, he agreed to do something.
So the combination of all was a one two punch
against them. And I literally do think, honest to God,
not just for people in South Jersey, but for people
on the entire coast of the United States and for
folks that just loved the ocean, loved the beach. This
was a major victory.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Something that I never heard about before until I saw
a release from you. And so you've exposed this and
it is stunning, and I'm sure people in New Jersey
are going to be upset when they hear this that
the New Jersey Turnpike has a contract with a company
that is run out of communist China. How did that

(04:17):
happen and what can be done about it?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, this gets filed under you know, I guess partly
it only could happen in New Jersey and you just
couldn't make it up. I mean, you can't make this
stuff up. So, you know, there was the major company
that does the easy pass systems for the entire country
and of course for New Jersey as well, was sold.

(04:43):
That was mistake number one, and it was bought as
so many things are being and we have to pay
more attention to this. And this case was bought by
a country known as Singapore, and on the board of
the company in Singapore that bought this American company are
Chinese Communists, people with deep connections and ties to the

(05:04):
ccp UH and you know, would have access to all
of the information, and it's a lot of information that
the easy Pass system has. So our contract ran out
with the American company went out to bid again. And
the weird part is this company, the Singapore company that

(05:27):
has ties to Red China, serious connections, was not even
a little bitter, but the turnpike authority awarded them the bid.
Why am I concerned? The New Jersey Turnpike the Garden
State park Way are some of the most traffic roads
in the entire country. Almost everybody at some point in
their time has been on the turnpike. And you know,

(05:49):
it's all our graffic patterns, all the the millions upon
millions upon millions of people, their personal information, their pictures,
their driver's license, et cetera. All the information that easy
Past has, all that would be easily accessible to and
will be to the Chinese Communist Party. Why in God's

(06:12):
name would you ever do that? Number one, Why don't
we go to the low bidder? I don't know, though,
you know, Larry, in this process the lower bidder, an
American company is now has an appeal on this because
of the very same That's how I found out the
very same concerns I have. They believe that it's a
national security issue. Not only does it show our graphic

(06:34):
panels and people's personal information. You know, folks don't realize
sometimes military equipment, when it has to get to one
spot to another, also has to travel along these roads.
It's a huge mistake. It makes no sense. It's bad
for national security. I've asked the term Pike authority in
as strong a way as I can to rethink this

(06:57):
and to rebid this, or at least to do something
different in the process. This isn't good for America.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Absolutely. It's a big local story. Thank you so much
for exposing that, and thanks for coming on. Would love
to have you on again, especially on this story. If
something happens, please let us know about it. Congressman Jeff
Van Drew, congressman down in South Jersey. What do you
represent Atlantic County?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
No, I represent the biggest district in the state and
represent geographically, Atlantic County, Cape May County, Cumberland County, stalem County,
Ocean County, Gloucester County. My district is bigger than the
entire state of New Jersey. So it's a big district.
It's probably about a third of the state. And I'm
proud of it. And you know, have still ties up

(07:45):
to northern and central New Jersey where I grew up
many years ago. And New Jersey is a great state
if you would just give it a chance. But I'm
gonna ask you a question, Larry, could you do anything
about the snow that's supposed to come.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
We're gonna be talking to meteorologists raise stage it coming up,
and I'll ask him. Thanks so much, Congressman Jeff Van
Drew always a pleasure.