Cape May County Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen say the latest bad news for New Jersey’s offshore wind strategy represents a big win for the state’s residents.
On Jan. 30 Shell plc withdrew from its 50/50 partnership with French-owned EDF Renewables, a partnership with two lease areas for Atlantic Shores wind farms off the coast of Atlantic City and Brigantine. The Atlantic Shores project was scheduled to be the state’s first industrial-size wind farm, following the 2023 withdrawal of the Danish firm Orsted from its Ocean Wind projects off Cape May County.
Atlantic Shores has issued a statement saying that it intends to “continue progressing New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm.” Yet the Shell withdrawal is seen as another major blow to offshore wind plans in the Garden State. McClellan calls offshore wind development in the state “effectively dead.”
A memorandum issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in office paused almost all offshore wind projects by ordering a halt to the issuance of federal permits and leases.
The assemblymen want to see the money the state would have invested in offshore wind redirected to shore protection.
“There is no question about the value of a beach replenishment project, both for the environment and the economy. It would be better to invest in sand at the shore than an offshore wind industry that is detrimental to endangered marine mammals and financially unsound,” the lawmakers said in a statement.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
