Judge voids key permit for major US offshore wind farm

EDF Renewables’ Atlantic Shores now stands as the first offshore wind project in late-stage permitting to be halted by any US administration.

This comes less than two months after the inauguration of Trump, who has frequently singled out offshore wind for criticism. 

Mary Kay Lynch, an environmental appeals judge, invalidated an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air pollution permit, which is required for the project to proceed. Local campaign group Save Long Beach Island had appealed against the permitting, saying the project would be too damaging environmentally. 

Lynch cited the executive order Trump signed on 20 January, when he stopped all of his administration’s review of wind projects on federal land for 60 days. The seabed of the outer continental shelf, on which the project was to be sited, falls under federal jurisdiction. 

“The [environmental appeals] board has generally exercised its broad discretion to grant a permit issuer’s voluntary remand request where the permitting authority is reevaluating its permit decision,” the judge wrote in the 14 March decision.

A spokesperson for the project said: “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.” 

Atlantic Shores does not yet have a permit to construct and operate the project. That would be issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is also part of the Trump administration.

The project consists of two wind farms planned for sites around 14km off Atlantic City. The developers have secured an offtake agreement for the roughly 1.5GW first phase, but not for the second phase.

EDF Renewables was developing the project alongside Shell, but the oil major recently withdrew from the project.