The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) today cancelled its fourth offshore wind solicitation, a development Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) called “good news, especially on the heels of Shell Energy’s announcement last week that the company is withdrawing from the Atlantic Shores wind project off the coast of New Jersey.

“The BPU’s cancellation is a sign that they have finally understood the undeniable facts. Industrializing our oceans is completely untenable, widely rejected by the public, and will come at an unimaginable cost to New Jersey’s tax and rate payers,” Smith said.

“Without Shell, even the Murphy Administration, which has been shoveling taxpayer money into these projects at breakneck speeds to give them a pulse, admits these projects are not economically viable. This is truly astounding, given Atlantic Shores was allowed to rebid in the fourth solicitation to give them an even more favorable deal so the project could be completed despite skyrocketing costs,” Smith said.

Christine Guhl-Sadovy, President of the NJ BPU, said regarding the decision to cancel the solicitation, “A number of reasons led to this decision, notably Shell backing out as an equity partner in the Atlantic Shores project and backing away from the American clean energy market, as well as uncertainty driven by federal actions and permitting.”

“The BPU’s cancellation follows President Trump’s January 20^th offshore wind Executive Order which continues to help shine a light on the Green New Deal whitewash and will hopefully lead to the permanent halting of all projects off the Jersey Shore,” said Smith who has for years pointed out the lack of serious scrutiny, economic unsustainability, and legal deficiency of these projects and has led multiple efforts to secure answers from the Biden Administration on offshore wind.

Smith recently wrote a letter urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, responsible for federal approval of offshore wind, to comply with the Executive Order and cancel public hearings scheduled for later this month.

Similarly, Smith has urged the BPU to cancel any pending reviews for proposed prebuild infrastructure to bring wind power ashore in Sea Girt, where the local community holds valid concerns over the large-scale electrical cables planned to be laid in residential areas and along major thoroughfares.

“The BPU’s mission statement is to ensure safe, adequate, and proper utility services are provided at reasonable, non-discriminatory rates to all members of the public who desire such services,” Smith said.

“Instead, these offshore wind energy projects have proven to be prohibitively expensive, a real threat to radar, national security, the environment, and our fishing industry. I urge BPU to hear the concerns of our citizens and cancel the contracts for any offshore wind projects on the Jersey Shore,” he said.

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