New Jersey Monitor reports on President Trump's recent memorandum that will temporarily pause most of New Jersey's offshore wind projects, with the potential for long-term freezes if the administration rescinds previous approvals under the Biden presidency. United's Jeremy McDiarmid spoke with the publication, stating that while there may be some project delays depending on the length of the federal government's review, the offshore wind industry's overall strength remains evident.
A memorandum issued on President Donald Trump’s first day in office will pause nearly all offshore wind projects in New Jersey, with the prospect of a longer-lasting standstill if his administration moves to rescind approvals issued under President Joe Biden.
Trump’s memorandum orders federal agencies to stop issuing permits and leases pending a review of U.S. approval processes for wind energy projects. But while it calls on authorities to review options to end existing leases, it stops short of seeking to withdraw existing permits.
“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” he said at a rally following his inauguration last week.
Only one of the four active New Jersey wind projects appears unaffected by Trump’s memorandum. Atlantic Shores South, which encompasses projects set to deliver 2,800 megawatts of power beginning as early as 2028, won its final federal permits on Dec. 16, just over a month before Trump was inaugurated into a second term.
Because it had advanced to that late regulatory stage, Atlantic Shores South is not likely to be waylaid, said Jeremy McDiarmid, a managing director with Advanced Energy United, a trade group that backs non-fossil electricity sources.
“It is unlikely they will be harmed by this order,” he said. “However, the order does open the door to a review of already issued permits, and that, while unlikely, is not risk-free.”
Trump’s memorandum calls for the interior secretary to review wind permitting practices.
Permit revocations, while not unheard of, are typically initiated after a developer violates the terms of their permit, McDiarmid said, but projects that already have them could still be waylaid if developers seek renewed approvals, new loans, or additional rights of way.
It’s not clear how much of an effect the permitting pause will have on other wind energy projects, though it will at least temporarily stall all others approved by state energy regulators.
The memorandum requires a pause on permitting until the Department of the Interior completes its review. While there is no clear timeline for inquiry, offshore wind projects operate on long time horizons, and it can take years for them to move through the federal permitting process.
It’s possible the pause will serve as little more than a speed bump for other projects in the pipeline, depending on the length of the federal government’s review, but it could also presage a broader block on wind projects.
“I think there will be a lot of back and forth depending on how this executive order gets enacted and interpreted, but it will certainly have a chilling effect on the project pipeline going forward,” McDiarmid said.
A spokesperson for Leading Light Wind, a 2,400 MW wind project awarded a bid by the state Board of Public Utilities last January, said the firm is still evaluating the impact of Trump’s memorandum.
Permitting for offshore wind projects typically takes years. Atlantic Shores South’s permit review ran for nearly four years, and the permitting process for Attentive Energy 2, a 1,342 MW wind farm that won a bid from the Board of Public Utilities last January, was expected to run through May 2028, according to the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council.
The memorandum’s block on new leases and lease renewals is not expected to kill existing wind energy projects that have already secured land off New Jersey’s coast, as those leases typically run for decades, but it could block state regulators from approving future projects.
Its call for the interior secretary to review options to rescind existing leases could pose a significant threat to projects already in the pipeline, and activists long opposed to Atlantic Shores North and South believe that call could be key to their end.
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