In what may be the most striking blow to an offshore wind farm since President Donald Trump took office, a project for New Jersey’s coast had a critical federal environmental permit yanked away Friday.
Judge Mary Kay Lynch, in an Environmental Appeals Court, issued the ruling to remand Atlantic Shores’ Clean Air Act permit, which the developer had been issued this past fall.
The latest setback for the company comes after a challenge from a group of residents — as part of the local group Save Long Beach Island or “Save LBI” — and is being sent back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for further review.
The project was once slated to begin construction as early as this year and ultimately bring 200 wind turbines roughly 8 to 20 miles off the state’s coast between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light.
Friday’s ruling comes months after Trump, who has been critical of clean energy investments nationwide, said he hoped the New Jersey project would be “dead and gone.”
The residents who opposed the development said they worried over impacts to the region — claiming a flawed environmental review process had advanced it.
The judge’s decision comes months after the CEO of Shell — which with EDF Renewables North America was previously fully committed to making the wind farm happen — wrote off nearly $1 billion and said it would “pause our involvement” from the project.
“Atlantic Shores is disappointed by the EPA’s decision to pull back its fully executed permit as regulatory certainty is critical to deploying major energy projects,” a spokeswoman for Atlantic Shores said in a statement provided to NJ Advance Media on Saturday.
She added that Atlantic Shores “stands ready to deliver on the promise of American energy dominance and has devoted extensive time and resources to follow a complex, multi-year permitting process, resulting in final project approvals that conform with the law.”
Without the key permit, however, the project — the only one this far along in the regulatory process in New Jersey — now faces notable headwinds before it can happen.
“This is a significant event because to my knowledge it is the first time that a federal approval for any offshore wind project has been overturned,” Bob Stern, who leads Save LBI, said in a statement Saturday, “and it highlights the lack of full disclosure and questionable science and mathematics that has characterized other applications and approvals.”
Save LBI, in challenging the project’s environmental review, told the court that activities linked to construction and operations of the Atlantic Shores’ wind turbines were not adequately vetted. They feared pollutants released during scheduled pile driving could hurt the air quality in the region, including at the Brigantine National Wilderness Area.
‘Saddling our state with more pollution’
Recently, it has been mostly bad news for New Jersey supporters of offshore wind, meant to provide a clean energy alternative amid the mounting risks posed by climate change and the state’s growing electricity needs.
In 2023, Ørsted, the largest global wind developer, suddenly canceled two offshore wind farms it had planned.
Last year, wind farms planned for New Jersey — from both Attentive Energy (a subsidiary of TotalEnergies) and Leading Light Wind (from Invenergy and energyRE) — were advanced by the state. Except since, both developers have said financial and supply chain issues have made it difficult to move ahead.
In February, the state’s Board of Public Utilities said it would not award any bids for a fourth round of offshore wind project solicitations.
And in another blow, the Economic Development Authority recently announced it was reassessing the future of a massive Salem County wind port.
The agency said it was looking at alternative uses for the port — where turbines were once set to be assembled before being shipped by barges offshore.
Advocates acknowledge that acquiring additional federal regulatory approvals — needed for offshore wind projects that are built in federal waters — will be tougher now given the current administration.
Jason Ryan, a spokesman for trade organization, American Clean Power Association, underscored the hundreds of millions of dollars already invested in making the Atlantic Shores project happen.
He said the loss of the wind farm, which has completed a lengthy permit process, would be detrimental to the nation’s expanding energy needs.
“This could chill investment in the U.S. for all types of infrastructure if a project permit is canceled for political reasons and not because of real impacts,” Ryan said of Friday’s ruling. “Blocking planned and permitted energy projects is going to put real pressure on the grid and consumer prices.”
Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, was frank Saturday about what the latest reversal will mean for the Garden State.
“Sadly,” he said, “Trump’s clean energy ban and the withdrawal of the Atlantic Shores permit killed thousands of good local jobs in New Jersey, is saddling our state with more pollution and climate-fueled storms, and putting energy independence further out of reach.”
