“We are not going to do the wind thing”
By Nikita Biryukov,
NJ Monitor
A memorandum issued on President Donald Trump’s first day in office will pause nearly all offshore wind projects in New Jersey, with the prospect of a longer-lasting standstill if his administration moves to rescind approvals issued under President Joe Biden.
Trump’s memorandum orders federal agencies to stop issuing permits and leases pending a review of U.S. approval processes for wind energy projects. But while it calls on authorities to review options to end existing leases, it stops short of seeking to withdraw existing permits.
“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” he said at a rally following his inauguration last week.
Only one of the four active New Jersey wind projects appears unaffected by Trump’s memorandum. Atlantic Shores South, which encompasses projects set to deliver 2,800 megawatts of power beginning as early as 2028, won its final federal permits on Dec. 16, just over a month before Trump was inaugurated into a second term.
Because it had advanced to that late regulatory stage, Atlantic Shores South is not likely to be waylaid, said Jeremy McDiarmid, a managing director with Advanced Energy United, a trade group that backs non-fossil electricity sources.
“It is unlikely they will be harmed by this order,” he said. “However, the order does open the door to a review of already issued permits, and that, while unlikely, is not risk-free.”
Trump’s memorandum calls for the interior secretary to review wind permitting practices.
Permit revocations, while not unheard of, are typically initiated after a developer violates the terms of their permit, McDiarmid said, but projects that already have them could still be waylaid if developers seek renewed approvals, new loans, or additional rights of way.
It’s not clear how much of an effect the permitting pause will have on other wind energy projects, though it will at least temporarily stall all others approved by state energy regulators.
The memorandum requires a pause on permitting until the Department of the Interior completes its review. While there is no clear timeline for inquiry, offshore wind projects operate on long time horizons, and it can take years for them to move through the federal permitting process.
A spokesperson for Leading Light Wind, a 2,400 MW wind project awarded a bid by the state Board of Public Utilities last January, said the firm is still evaluating the impact of Trump’s memorandum.
Its call for the interior secretary to review options to rescind existing leases could pose a significant threat to projects already in the pipeline, and activists long opposed to Atlantic Shores North and South believe that call could be key to their end.
“We believe the award of this lease area was not done in accordance with the current Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. I would hope the new administration comes to the same conclusion and cancels the lease area directly,” said Bob Sterns, president of Save LBI and a former director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Compliance.
A vocal critic of offshore wind projects, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-02), applauded Trump’s move, saying last week that “our beautiful oceans will be preserved, and families will not be even further burdened with unaffordable energy bills.”
“These projects were terrible from the start, and this fight has been worth every effort — for America!” Van Drew said.
Atlantic Shores South’s final approval followed the Biden administration’s May finalization of new rules meant to streamline permitting to shorten timelines and reduce costs that have proven a major stumbling block for the industry.
Those rules could come under fire as part of the interior secretary’s review, and future rules enacted by the Trump administration could lengthen permitting approvals or block them altogether.
But the prospect of strong headwinds has not pushed Gov. Phil Murphy away from ambitious renewable energy goals that include a call for the state to draw 100% of its power from renewable or nuclear sources by 2035.
