TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey woke up to grim news on Wednesday. The Ocean Wind 1 and 2 offshore wind projects were canceled by Orsted, a Danish company that was Governor Phil Murphy’s clean energy agenda hail Mary.
Now, New Jersey’s biggest offshore wind farm is dead, even as construction of a wind port in Salem County continues. Construction began in 2021 and state officials cited the Orsted project as the driving force behind the rapid pace of construction.
Jonathan Kennedy, managing director of infrastructure at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, said the port will be operational in 2024.
“The reason we have such an aggressive schedule is that we’ve got a user — Ørsted, specifically — that needs this thing up and running in early 2024,” said Kennedy, “We’ve made a commitment to Ørsted to have it all ready in time to support Ocean Wind 1 — that’s the ticking clock for the project, that’s what is driving the schedule.”
The only problem is there won’t be any wind energy coming into that port in 2024. Prior to Orsted’s termination of their agreement with New Jersey, that date had already been pushed back to 2025.
Murphy plans to generate 11 gigawatts of clean energy by 2035. That’s when his gasoline-powered car ban is scheduled to be in full force. Ocean Wind 1 would have generated 2,400 megawatts of energy, enough to power 1 million homes.
Murphy’s entire energy master plan relies on offshore wind farms. Without them, it is dead in the water. Today, New Jersey is realizing there was no plan b.
With Ocean Wind I and II effectively dead in the water, Republicans are now demanding answers. What happens to the wind port? What happens to the supporting infrastructure projects along the shore that are already in progress? And where is all of the money going?
This week, Senator Michael Testa and Senate Republican Leader Anthony M. Bucco sent a letter to Governor Murphy demanding a fiscal audit and documents related to interactions with the foreign wind developer Orsted after the company announced they were pulling the plug on New Jersey’s offshore wind project.
Legislators are calling for a moratorium on Murphy’s entire clean energy agenda until things can be sorted out.
A few weeks ago, Orsted made a $100 million guarantee. Will they come clean on it?
“Our delegation in the Tenth District warned that Governor Murphy’s misplaced energy priorities were rushed and ill-conceived. We argued that real issues like school funding needed to be addressed before blindly handing out subsidies to a foreign entity with glaring financial problems,” said Ocean County state senator James Holzapfel.
“We all would love an unending source of energy with no drawbacks. But the wind projects backed by the Governor and Trenton Democrats never seemed to add up – financially or environmentally,” said Senator Declan O’Scanlon.
Now, an angry Murphy is lashing out, threatening lawsuits to force Orsted to finish their project.
“We strongly disagree with the Governor’s position to use litigation to resurrect what is ultimately a horrific deal for our State. Rather than spend more N.J. taxpayer funds to make Ørsted “honor their commitment,” as the Governor suggested in his statement, New Jersey should instead take legislative action to prevent any further ill-conceived corporate bailouts for foreign companies immediately. We cannot afford any more back-room dealings by this administration,” state assemblywoman Victoria Flynn.
“Republicans stated for months that Orsted’s offshore wind project was unsustainable and would inevitably fail. Orsted’s decision today confirms that Republicans were right when we said this was too much, too fast, and too costly. Their financial challenges were glaringly obvious, yet Democrats ignored the warning signs to rush through Governor Murphy’s extreme energy master plan without any due diligence,” Bucco added.