Orsted’s decision to abandon its New Jersey offshore wind projects has catalyzed a wide array of reactions from elected officials.Republicans are jubilant. Legislative Democrats, compromised politically by a summer 2023 vote to give Orsted $1 billion in tax incentives, are weighing their words carefully.
The Murphy Administration is pissed.
“Today’s decision by @Orsted to abandon its commitments to New Jersey is outrageous and calls into question the company’s credibility and competence,” Murphy raged on X. “I have directed my Administration to take all necessary steps to ensure that Orsted fully honors its obligations.”
One Jersey Shore local official is demanding an official inquiry into how those committments came into being.
“While I’m very encouraged by this news as one of the first elected officials to sound the alarm on wind projects, let’s be clear – the ‘War for the Shore’ is far from over. Someone needs to be held accountable for what has been taking place, there needs to be a serious investigation into how billions of dollars were given by the State of New Jersey to a foreign corporation as a bailout,” said Council President Brian J. Thomas on Wednesday.
“I cannot send a friend money through an app without the IRS looking at it, yet somehow the Governor and Democrat Legislators in Trenton pushed through the State House enormous sums of taxpayer dollars to offshore (pun intended) companies without scrutiny,” Thomas added. “The only thing ‘green’ about this whole deal seems to be the money.”
New Jersey taxpayers’ investment into Orsted’s Ocean Wind One and Two projects goes beyond the $1 billion in pledged tax incentives. The price tag along for New Jersey’s Salem County “wind port” was estimated at $500 million, and that doesn’t include research, regulatory action, and other ancillary costs.
Thomas says some much needed accountability is long overdue.
“These type of Jersey-style cloak and dagger deals done in the dark have really gotten old, I mean they passed laws that removed the authority of municipal governments from having input, attempting to silence residents and local electeds before the first sonar boat was in the water – how in the world is this acceptable? Short answer – it’s not and the residents of New Jersey are taking notice and I hope that they hold everyone accountable on Election Day,” Thomas continued. “Residents and local electeds along the Jersey Shore have to continue sending a clear message to Trenton and Governor Murphy that our beaches are not for sale, that we are not for sale! We’re one step closer to having the price tags that the Legislature put on us permanently removed, but we must keep fighting.”
