At approximately 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday, on an earnings call from its headquarters in Copenhagen, the Danish offshore wind corporation Orsted announced that it is abandoning its Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 offshore wind projects off the coast of Cape May County.
The announcement comes after more than two years of aggressive and unrelenting legal and public opposition led by the County of Cape May. The last straw for Orsted appears to have been the filing by the county and multiple private sector plaintiffs of a massive, unprecedented federal lawsuit challenging federal permits issued for the Ocean Wind 1 project.
“This is a great day for the people and businesses of Cape May County,” County Commission Director Leonard Desiderio said in a news release Tuesday night. “This is a great day for the Atlantic Ocean. This is a great day for the whales and dolphins. The massive, reckless experiment known as Ocean Wind 1 has been stopped and Ocean Wind 2 abandoned."
Desiderio continued, "There were many who consistently told us that we were wasting our time, and that there was nothing we could do about the project being built. Well, I am happy that the County Board of Commissioners and so many in our business community and the grassroots groups that have been protesting did not listen to the naysayers.”
He continued, “We are a small county down here at the southernmost point of New Jersey, but we knew all along that our economy, our environment, our very way of life was at stake. Orsted has walked away from Ocean Wind 1, but we are not walking away from this fight. We intend to redouble our efforts to ensure that our horizon remains free of massive offshore industrialization.”
During a rally in September, protesters gather on the 35th Street beach in Ocean City in their fight against Orsted's offshore wind farm.
Orsted CEO Mads Nipper told investors that Orsted was walking away from the Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 projects because “Orsted has taken the decision to cease the development of the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects. Orsted has updated its view on certain assumptions, including tax credit monetization and the timing and likelihood of final construction permits.”
There is no doubt that the county's efforts played a significant role in Orsted’s decision to abandon Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2, said former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michael J. Donohue, of the law firm of Blaney, Donohue & Weinberg in Avalon, who serves as Special Counsel on Offshore Wind to Cape May County.
“When we began opposing Orsted’s actions more than two years ago, they said we were wasting our time. Many friends and adversaries throughout this fight took to referring to me as Don Quixote and told us we were as crazy as he was," Donohue said in the release. "But there was too much at stake to give up. They said there was nothing that could stop the Ocean Wind 1 project."
"When we litigated before the Board of Public Utilities, they told us we were irresponsible for opposing something that was a fait accompli," Donohue added. "When we made Orsted sue us in order to get road permits and file easements, they said we were being unreasonable. When we filed appeals to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court, we were told we were wasting the court’s time."
Without all of these actions by the County of Cape May, Orsted’s path forward would have been much more attractive. Economic factors certainly impacted Orsted’s decision to abandon Ocean Wind 1, according to Donohue.
"But there can be no doubt that after all that was done over by the County over the past two years, when the County of Cape May, the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, the Wildwood Hotel and Motel Association, and a group of brave businesses from our Fisheries community had the courage to file an unprecedented federal lawsuit challenging Orsted’s federal permits, it is clear that the situation became untenable for them," the release stated.
"Hundreds of thousands of acres of the Atlantic Ocean environment, as well as our local tourism and fisheries economies, have been saved as a result,” the release said.
Along with Donohue’s firm, Blaney, Donohue & Weinberg, the County enlisted Roger and Nancie Marzulla of the Marzulla Law Firm of Washington, D.C., Dan Ginolfi and Howard Marlowe of Warwick Consulting of Washington, D.C., Anthony Bocchi of the Cullen Dykman law firm’s Hackensack office, and the attorneys of Cultural Heritage Partners of Richmond, Virginia.
