Homeowners fight back against N.J. offshore wind, saying it’ll increase electric bills - NJ.com
Homeowners fight back against N.J. offshore wind, saying it’ll increase electric bills - nj.com
Two homeowners’ groups are challenging New Jersey’s preliminary approval of two new offshore wind power projects, saying they would be unlawfully costly to electricity customers.
Protect Our Coast New Jersey and Defend Brigantine Beach and Downbeach filed an appeal to the approval Tuesday in state court, saying that power contracts granted to the project developers violate state law.
The state Board of Public Utilities in January chose Attentive Energy LLC and Leading Light Wind LLC to build offshore wind projects.
But the contracts they were awarded violate New Jersey law that mandates that any increase in rates for offshore wind must be exceeded by economic and environmental benefits to the state, according to attorney Bruce Afran, who filed the appeal on behalf of the groups.
“If these awards are allowed to stand, residents throughout the state could pay up to $20 billion extra for power and see their already high bills increase by up to 20% or more,” said Keith Moore, government affairs director for Defend Brigantine Beach. “Besides the cost to residents, the rate impacts to commercial and industrial users will be severe, up to 25 and 30% respectively. Many businesses may have to close under that financial pressure.”
The BPU declined comment Friday.
In announcing the new projects in January, the board said they would add $6.84 a month to the average residential customer’s bill; $58.73 a month to the average commercial bill and $513.22 a month to the average industrial bill.
Edward O’Donnell of Whitestrand Consulting, who has prepared a report in support of the appeal, said the board has “deliberately and improperly chosen to use hypothetical benefits to future global populations from reduced carbon emissions at an extremely high value to justify the exorbitant prices for power from these projects.”
The groups also say the board failed to include over $5 billion in added costs for onshore transmission upgrades, which they said will push electric rates even higher.
At a press conference last week touting the projects, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said they will “guarantee that New Jerseyans have access to clean, affordable energy produced right here in our state.”
The action brings the state’s total of preliminarily approved offshore wind projects to three — the same level it was at before Danish wind developer Orsted scrapped its two wind farms proposed for the state’s southern coast in October. The projects join Atlantic Shores, a previously approved wind farm.
The board is preparing for a fourth round of project solicitations.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.