Ørsted suing New Jersey county over wind turbine permits - Press of Atlantic City
Ørsted suing New Jersey county over wind turbine permits
The company building a controversial wind farm off New Jersey’s coast is suing Cape May County officials for not fulfilling permitting requests and following regulator orders it argues has delayed the project.
Ocean Wind 1, owned by Danish-based energy company Ørsted, contends the county, its clerk and its engineer are prolonging the paperwork needed for easements required by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
The officials also are not yet granting road opening permits for work in Ocean City, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit was filed July 3, the same day the Biden administration approved the wind farm’s construction about 13 nautical miles southeast of Atlantic City.
The wind farm’s builder names the county’s clerk and engineer, Rita Rothberg and Robert Church, respectively. It also names Kevin Lare, the clerk for the Cape May County Board of Commissioners.
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The lawsuit was filed in Cape May County Superior Court by attorney Christine A. Roy, who did not return a request for comment Tuesday.
Ocean Wind 1’s legal teams contend county officials are not following BPU orders.
The county, however, insists the orders’ being placed in the county’s record would have to be a decision by a court, not state regulators, the lawsuit states.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a bill giving a tax break to Danish offshore wind developer Orsted for the first of two energy projects it plans to place in the waters off the Jersey Shore. And he faces pressure from another offshore wind company looking for similar assistance. The governor’s office said he would sign the bill, allowing Orsted to keep federal tax credits that it otherwise would have been required to pass along to New Jersey utility ratepayers. Another offshore wind project, Atlantic Shores, also wants government aid for its own project off the southern New Jersey coast.
Michael Donohue, an attorney representing Cape May County on wind-related matters, denounced the lawsuit Tuesday, saying the company chooses to sue instead of meeting for negotiations.
“Demand letters and lawsuits seem to be the only language Ørsted knows,” Donohue said. “The county is reviewing the latest lawsuit from Ørsted and will respond shortly.”
In November, the BPU authorized the easements across Ocean City, where the company intends to run cable lines underground at Roosevelt Boulevard and Bay Avenue. The line would connect to a new energy hub at the site of the former B.L. England Generating Station, which is in the process of being demolished.
The company filed a similar lawsuit in May over Ocean City not awarding city permits for 12 test pits and two soil borings, part of the wind power project’s plans to bring electricity ashore.
The developer’s lawsuit also cites the county’s failure to award road-opening permits to perform “utility and environmental investigations within portions of 35th Street,” leading to a delay in starting construction.
The scope of that work consists of 23 soil borings, two long-term monitoring wells and 40 test pits from 35th Street and West Avenue in Ocean City to Roosevelt Boulevard and Route 9 in Upper Township, the lawsuit states, adding it would take about three weeks to complete the work.
To limit interference with the summer tourism season, Ocean Wind 1 requested April 13 that the road application be issued within 30 days, allowing the work to be finished no later than May’s end, the lawsuit states.
The county’s neglect to grant the permits has slowed construction, which is planned to begin as early as 2023’s third quarter, the lawsuit states. It’s also having “cascading and adverse” effects on other needed permitting and approvals.
With a wind power project proposed off the beach taking a big step forward this week, Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian on Thursday criticized the approval process and called offshore energy production “a crazy gamble.”
Plans call for up to 98 wind turbines along the Jersey Shore through the project. Plans are for the first power to be delivered onshore in late 2024.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management endorsed the project formally last week as aligning with President Joe Biden’s broader clean-energy initiatives for the U.S.
Gov. Phil Murphy also signed into law Thursday a bill giving Ørsted a tax break, saying the financial aid ensures offshore wind projects and the jobs they create happen in New Jersey rather than in competing states.
The wind farms have been the subject of heated political debate.
Republicans and officials in several Cape May County communities, most notably Ocean City, have shown opposition to the project. They argue their construction would negatively affect tourism and the local fishing industry.
Other arguments have tied their development to a string of offseason marine mammal deaths in New Jersey and New York, but those theories lack evidence, according to federal officials.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
GALLERY: Ocean City offshore wind protest
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
Scores of protesters marched across the Route 52 causeway from Ocean City to Somers Point on Saturday to express their opposition to offshore wind power projects. Guardians of the East Coast, a private Facebook group, organized the event.
Protesters walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power May 27 in Ocean City.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
Many of the signs alluded to the recent spate of whale deaths along the New Jersey coast.
Offshore wind power protesters walk over the Ninth Street bridge from Ocean City to Somers Point on Saturday.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power was held starting at the Mark Soifer park.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew was present for a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power, with some protesters holding signs that read "Stop Windmills, Save Our Shore, Jeff Van Drew, For U.S. Congress."
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, Rick Herwig, a Princeton resident, showing his support for a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
Jessica Aiello and daughter Madelyn, 12, came from Toms River to show their support for the cause. Many of the signs alluded to the recent spate of whale deaths along the New Jersey coast and other marine environment concerns.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, (center) Sylvia Lockwood, a resident from Cape May Court House, showed her support for a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, Kathleen Harper, a resident of Dennis Twp., came to support a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
Joseph Norris, left, a seasonal resident of Brigantine, speaks with U.S. Rep Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, before the protest walk began in Ocean City.
Ocean City resident Mary Claire Shuster came to show her support for the protest.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, (l-r) Janet McMahon and Karen Martine, from Marmora and Vineland, show their support for a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, Pennsburgh PA resident DJJ Hutchinson showed his support for a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
LEFT: Nancy Hutchinson holds a sign with a quotation attributed to Albert Einstein. BOTTOM LEFT: Jessica Aiello and daughter Madelyn, 12, came from Toms River to show their support for the cause. Many of the signs alluded to the recent spate of whale deaths along the New Jersey coast and other marine environment concerns. BOTTOM RIGHT: Joseph Norris, left, a seasonal resident of Brigantine, speaks with U.S. Rep Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, before the protest walk began in Ocean City.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, Ocean City resident Kelly Hudak pushes her kids Ollie and Clay, 8 and 4 , duringa a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
On May 27, 2023, in Ocean City, Ray McNeely, a city resident, shows his support for a protest walk over the Ninth Street bridge against offshore wind power.
Contact Eric Conklin:
609-272-7261
Twitter @ACPressConklin
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.