In 2023, Cape May County officials led a multifaceted opposition to the Danish firm Orsted’s plans for two wind farm developments off the county’s coast. As part of that resistance, the county filed an appeal against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies in October of that year, challenging the federal granting of approval for the first project the previous July.
Legal opposition by the county also included challenging the actions of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and its authority to allow Orsted the right to file easements taken from the county for the laying of high-voltage transmission cables to carry power from the wind farm to a grid link point in Upper Township.
Later in October 2023, Orsted shocked both its supporters in state government and its opposition when it abruptly announced it was abandoning the Ocean Wind One project. Much of the next year was spent in negotiations as Orsted, which still owned the lease rights, sought to claw back some of the $300 million it had placed in escrow.
The state agreed to return $175 million, and Orsted agreed to accept a vacating of the BPU’s orders, essentially removing all prospects for the construction of Ocean Wind One and Two off the county coast.
The county continued its litigation in order to ensure that the projects were dead and not able to be resuscitated.
In a press release on Dec. 16, the county’s public information officer, Diane Wieland, announced that the county has finally ended the litigation over the “defeated Orsted wind project.”
Former Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue, who led the legal effort for the county, stated, “We reached a point where Orsted, the Department of Justice on behalf of federal agencies, and the New Jersey Attorney General on behalf of the NJBPU all admitted in court filings that Orsted’s Wind One offshore wind project is dead and will not be coming back to life.”
