COURT HOUSE – As most county residents prepared for Independence Day cookouts and businesses braced for one of the busiest tourist periods of the year, July 3, the Danish firm Ørsted filed suit against Cape May County.
Ørsted claims the county is knowingly delaying the issuance of permits that would allow the wind farm developer to commence work in September on its cable transmission route across Ocean City to a terminus in Beesley’s Point in Upper Township.
The route crosses both municipal and county land. Ørsted already won a judgment from the court ordering Ocean City to issue its permits. The struggle now is with Cape May County.
In February, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approved Ørsted’s preferred route for the transmission cable. As it did so, it used a new state statute from 2021 that gave the NJBPU the power to overrule municipal and county boards that normally control all land use decisions.
The suit against the county is similar to the one Ørsted filed against Ocean City. It asserts that the intentional foot dragging by the county is delaying the start of construction for the state’s first offshore wind farm.
Delay due to litigation is becoming a constant theme as Ørsted seeks to push ahead with its construction plans. Both the county and Ocean City have filed appeals of the NJBPU decision overruling local land use boards.
Three citizen groups launched legal challenges to the wind farm project by asking the courts to reverse the recent state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) ruling that plans for Ocean Wind I are consistent with state coastal management rules.
One of those three groups, Save Long Beach Island, is also suing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) with regard to the creation of the actual offshore wind lease sites.
Cape May County recently announced that it had retained a Washington D.C. law firm to specifically look at permit processes for other federal agencies. The firm specializes in challenging regulatory decisions and processes.
The county openly acknowledged that it would be reviewing all federal permit processes related to the offshore wind effort to identify areas of potential legal challenges.
Unless state and federal officials have some alternative plan, Ørsted is likely to find itself enmeshed in litigation at every turn. Ørsted claims in its filing against the county that the delays in permitting are having a cascading effect on other needed approvals.
Recently, the state agreed to allow Ørsted to keep federal tax credits it otherwise would have had to return to New Jersey ratepayers. Immediately following that decision on tax credits with Ørsted, the developer of the nearby Atlantic Shores South wind farm project has said it, too, needs financial assistance for its project.
Meanwhile, Cape May County filed strong opposition to the Atlantic Shores South wind farm using the open comment period for BOEM’s draft environmental impact statement for the project.
Litigation is multiplying rapidly with respect to the offshore wind initiative and opponents are promising more to come.
Cape May County Commissioner Director Leonard Desiderio said, “Our serious legal team will be looking for avenues to stop these projects from damaging our environment and our economy.”
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
