New Jersey will not provide financial backing to new offshore wind projects, Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration announced Monday. The decision blows a hole in his environmental agenda and legacy and effectively dooms Atlantic Shores, a project off the coast of Atlantic City that has been the focus of opposition from President Donald Trump and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.).
Murphy, a term-limited Democrat, took office in 2018 hoping offshore wind projects would be a perfect issue to unite a liberal coalition and ensure his legacy by providing clean energy to fight climate change and mega projects to employ union workers.
Instead, the industry is in tatters and Murphy will leave office without a single wind turbine in the water.
In a statement, the governor called the industry a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs, drive an entirely new manufacturing supply chain, and secure energy independence,” but he acknowledged the realities facing it. He said the “offshore wind industry is currently facing significant challenges, and now is the time for patience and prudence.”
The challenges include economic conditions beyond Murphy’s control and Trump, who has long railed against wind energy and ordered a halt to federal approval of offshore wind projects on his first day in office last month.
In New Jersey, state utility regulators approve new projects by agreeing to put ratepayers on the hook for the power from wind farms. The state has already approved five projects. Two were canceled in 2023 by Danish energy giant Ørsted, largely because of inflation and supply chain issues. Three others were plodding along — until Trump took office.
The biggest blow is Atlantic Shores, which was on track to be the state’s first offshore wind project after Ørsted’s exit. The project, a 50-50 partnership of European energy giants Shell and EDF, even received all its federal permits in the final weeks of the Biden administration. But it has long needed more money from the state and was vying, along with other projects, for that money.
Murphy’s Monday announcement canceled that bidding process, stranding Atlantic Shores, which also last week lost support from Shell. Bids were submitted last year to the Board of Public Utilities, which was supposed to award backing to projects in December but that was delayed and is now waylaid.
Joris Veldhoven, Atlantic Shores’ CEO, said the company “stands ready to deliver on the promise of offshore wind to achieve American energy dominance, grow the economy, and protect the environment” and help the governor meet his 100 percent clean energy goal, but said Murphy’s announcement “clearly puts this goal at risk.”
“We look forward to working together during this dynamic and evolving landscape to identify future offtakes and opportunities to serve millions of homes with safe, reliable, renewable power,” Veldhoven said in the statement. An offtake agreement refers to the award a company receives if it wins the bidding process.
BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy said there were three initial bidders in this round of bidding, known as the fourth solicitation, however, two bidders withdrew and only Atlantic Shores submitted a final offer.
Another pair of projects that already received state backing are years away from getting the federal permits, which the Trump administration may never grant, and have asked to extend key deadlines for their projects. One of those requests, from Leading Light Wind, came before Trump was elected; the other, from Attentive, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, came days after Trump took office. Attentive is also one of the companies that dropped out of the recent BPU bidding process.
The projects do not get money until they generate power. So, while state has spent time and often significant resources on planning for offshore wind – including hundreds of millions earmarked for a special “wind port” facility in South Jersey — ratepayers are not paying for power they may never receive.
The head of the state Economic Development Authority, Tim Sullivan, said in a statement that the state has “taken a cautious approach to further development of the port since 2023, and we have worked to identify alternative uses that would maximize the economic development, job creation, and financial potential of the site for the state.”
All these project deaths and delays are devastating to Murphy’s climate change and economic development agenda. Environmentalists and some labor unions who have long championed offshore wind have also had their hopes dashed.
Perhaps one of the most potent signs of how dashed hopes have been came last year at a South Jersey port that was being reconfigured to assemble giant foundations for wind turbines. A company there had to cut up and scrap the massive structures, known as monopiles, meant for Ørsted’s first project.
