March 31, 2025 — Federal officials pulled the plug on the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind project on March 14, 2025, as Environmental Appeals Court Judge Mary Kay Lynch ruled to remand a Clean Air Act permit issued last September to Atlantic Shores back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
According to the Asbury Park Press, EPA officials filed a motion in February to have the court remand the permit to the agency, in order to review the wind energy project’s environmental impacts. The action came in response to President Donald Trump’s January memorandum to withdraw all of the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leases for further review.
In 2021, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) awarded Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind a contract for 1.5 megawatts of renewable energy production to be generated in a facility off Atlantic City, but Judge Lynch’s decision could threaten the future of that project.
“I am glad to announce that the Atlantic Shores South wind project off of Long Beach Island (LBI) and Brigantine, NJ has been sunk,” said Bob Stern of Save LBI, the organization which had petitioned the federal government to review of the Clean Air Act permit issued to the offshore wind developer. Stern noted that Shell New Energies, a 50% owner of the Atlantic Shores project, announced that they were stepping away from the project just 20 days after his organization had filed a comprehensive federal lawsuit against the project.