Posted on March 21, 2025
Court revokes key offshore wind permit, highlighting oversight failures by U.S. and NJ officials.
SEA GIRT, MANASQUAN, NJ — After nine months of covering offshore wind energy developments along the Jersey Coast, three glaring issues have emerged over that time—each fueling opposition to the federal and state-backed offshore wind plan:
1️⃣ Lack of due diligence on key environmental, economic, and logistical factors.
2️⃣ Rushed approvals that prioritize speed over comprehensive review.
3️⃣ “Bigger is better” mentality, with leaders pushing for NJ to be the nation’s offshore wind hub.
Governor Murphy encapsulated this ambition, declaring, “Welcome to NJ, the Nation’s Center of Offshore Wind.” But with mounting setbacks—including a recent court ruling revoking a critical permit—the cracks in this fast-tracked initiative are becoming impossible to ignore.
The future of offshore wind development in New Jersey has been dealt yet another significant blow following a recent ruling from the Environmental Appeals Board. On March 14, the board decided to revoke the Clean Air Act permit for the Atlantic Shores wind turbine project, a move that U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) described as “another nail in the coffin” for the initiative.
The permit, originally issued last fall, had been a crucial component of the project’s regulatory approval. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through the Environmental Appeals Board, determined that the review process failed to meet necessary standards, leading to the permit’s rescission. On Friday, Environmental Appeals Court Judge Mary Kay Lynch ordered the Clean Air Act permit, issued to Atlantic Shores last September, to be sent back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for further review.
Mike Dean of Save the East Coast, a grassroots group opposing the offshore wind projects, said, “The order is a significant development in that it shows a lack of due dilligence and opens opportunities to revisit some of the hastily issued permits previously granted.”
The ruling adds to the growing uncertainty surrounding the Atlantic Shores project. Earlier this year, Shell Energy withdrew, taking a nearly $1 billion loss. Chief Financial Officer Sinead Gorman explained, “We just don’t see that it fits both our capabilities nor the returns that we would like.”
This underscores a major miscalculation by federal and state officials on the economics of offshore wind. With key investors like Ørsted and Shell abandoning critical NJ projects over financial concerns—and New Jersey ratepayers and federal taxpayers who would have been left footing the offshore wind bill—critics argue these projects were never economically viable to begin with. We wrote two earlier stories last summer in our offshore wind series pertaining to the economics of offshore wind not working for the consumer, and now it’s not working for the developers. Click HERE and HERE for an understanding of the economics of offshore wind and how it impacts the consumer.
Rep. Smith, a longtime critic of offshore wind projects, welcomed the decision, arguing that federal oversight under the Biden administration had been reckless and inadequate. “The Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the inadequacy of Biden-era reviews and is correctly revoking a reckless decision by the previous administration as it tried to rush these projects to completion,” he said.
Smith has been vocal about the potential impacts of offshore wind farms, citing concerns over national security radar interference, disruptions to commercial and recreational fishing, and negative effects on local tourism and Coast Guard search and rescue operations.
With further regulatory reviews on the horizon, Smith remains optimistic that additional scrutiny will continue to uncover flaws in the permitting process. He pointed to a directive from President Trump that required more rigorous evaluations, suggesting that the recent decision could be the beginning of a broader reassessment of offshore wind projects along the East Coast.
As the debate over offshore wind energy continues, the rescission of this key permit raises questions about the future of large-scale wind development in New Jersey and beyond. In 2021, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities awarded Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind a contract for 1.5 megawatts of renewable energy production to be generated in a facility off Atlantic City. But Friday’s court decision could further threaten the future of that project.
In its quarterly earnings report on January 30, Shell disclosed a $996 million loss associated with the Atlantic Shores project to build the 2,800-megawatt array of 197 turbines off Long Beach Island and Brigantine. Local towns of Sea Girt, Manasquan, Wall Township, and Howell were targeted to take the brunt of getting hit by the Pre-Built Infrastructure (PBI) transmission line that would connect the offshore wind turbines to the power grid.
According to Bob Stern of Save LBI, a group that opposes the Atlantic Shores project, “This is a significant event because, to my knowledge, it is the first time that a federal approval for any offshore wind project has been overturned, and it highlights the lack of full disclosure and questionable science and mathematics that has characterized other applications and approvals. We are also continuing to pursue that through our federal lawsuit that was filed on January 10, 2025.”
According to an Atlantic Shores spokesperson, “Atlantic Shores is disappointed by the EPA’s decision to pull back its fully executed permit as regulatory certainty is critical to deploying major energy projects. Atlantic Shores stands ready to deliver on the promise of American energy dominance and has devoted extensive time and resources to follow a complex, multi-year permitting process, resulting in final project approvals that conform with the law.”
