Legal Battles End Against Offshore Wind In Cape May County

CAPE MAY COUNTY, NJ — Cape May County's state and federal legal battles regarding Orsted's Ocean Wind One and Two projects are officially over.

In a news release Monday, the county announced that they had agreed to dismiss appeals with regards to the federal lawsuit and from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), as it has been determined that Orsted has essentially abandoned the projects and are no longer authorized to proceed.

"We reached a point where Orsted, the Department of Justice on behalf of federal agencies and the New Jersey Attorney General on behalf of NJBPU all admitted in court filings that Orsted's Ocean Wind One offshore wind project is dead and will not be coming back to life," said former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michael J. Donohue, who has served as the county's Special Counsel for Offshore Wind and managed the county's offshore wind opposition strategy.

On Oct. 31, 2023, Orsted suddenly announced that it would be pulling out of the Ocean Wind projects, and then spent nearly a year negotiating with the state the return of $300 million the company had paid into escrow.

The State of New Jersey agreed to let Orsted keep $175 million in escrow funds in exchange for vacating the orders that granted it the right to construct the projects this past July. Those orders were vacated in August. Then, the state Attorney General determined these were no longer fully qualified offshore wind projects and that they had been abandoned.

In the federal lawsuit, the Department of Justice admitted that the cancellation of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities easements and permit precludes the construction of the projects. Orsted joined in the motions to dismiss, which is being touted as a victory by the county, who say this means that Orsted essentially admitted the projects will never be built.

While Orsted retains the lease areas, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has suspended the Ocean One lease area for three years. There are no current plans by any offshore wind developer for the use of the lease areas. Orsted has also indicated that it intends to abandon its Skipjack project that was planned for an area off the coast of Delaware and would have been visible from the southern end of Cape May County.

“In the end, thanks to the efforts of the County of Cape May, its litigation partners, courageous elected officials, and dedicated grassroots activists, the threat that the Orsted projects posed to the people and businesses of Cape May County have been stopped,” said Cape May County Commission Director Len Desiderio.

"Orsted has also told its investors that it is abandoning its Ocean Wind Two and Skipjack projects off of our coast. The Orsted CEO told reporters that there were ‘a couple of local construction permits that turned out to be more challenging and a bigger risk for the project than assumed,’" Donohue said. "This is a clear admission that the actions of the County and its litigation partners as well as the efforts of grassroots activists posed too big a risk for Orsted as it struggled with negative economic forces."