In a press release this afternoon, Cape May County announced that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has formally vacated all Orders that it issued to approve the Ocean Wind One and Ocean Wind Two projects. This action follows lawsuits filed by the County in New Jersey Appellate Division Courts and Federal District Courts. Orsted, who held the contracts on these projects, is allowed to keep $175 million in escrow funds in exchange for vacating the Orders. The County’s actions in both courts still remain active at this time.
“Today is a very important day in our ongoing opposition to these environmentally destructive offshore wind projects,” said Cape May County Commission Director Len Desiderio. “The vacation of these Orders by the BPU means that it will be much more difficult for Orsted or any other Big Wind company to utilize these lease areas just a few miles off of Cape May County beaches. As we have seen in Nantucket over the past few weeks, these industrial electricity-generating facilities represent an unacceptable threat to our environment and, consequently, to our local economy. In Nantucket, the disintegration of a single turbine blade has lead to tens of thousands of pounds of fiberglass, foam, industrial adhesive and other contaminants in the water and washing up on local beaches, which have had to be closed. We cannot allow that to happen to Cape May County.”
“They say you can never know which straw will break the camel’s back,” said former New Jersey Superior Court Judge and Cape May County Special Counsel for Offshore Wind, Michael Donohue. “But we can know for sure that the County of Cape May and its partners in the fishing and tourism industries as well as respectable environmental groups certainly contributed to Orsted’s decision to abandon the Ocean Wind industrial offshore wind projects. And that decision led directly to their agreement to have the Board of Public Utilities rescind their approvals for Ocean Wind One and Ocean Wind Two. We have informed the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court that we believe that there are still Constitutional and conflicts-of-interest questions that they should hear. We are also likely to amend our Federal Court filings since the actions of the NJBPU would appear to have nullified Orsted’s federal permits.”
The County continues to support the City of Brigantine’s efforts to stop the Atlantic Shores project, which would be constructed 8 miles off that town’s beaches.
Cover photo by Jason Mavrommatis on Unsplash.
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