New Jersey has gone from the aspirational epicenter for offshore wind to a graveyard of Orsted projects. | Wayne Parry/APOrsted, the company that Democrats up and down the Eastern Seaboard have been counting on to build offshore wind farms, is pulling the plug on two of its largest projects, a setback for President Joe Biden’s clean energy goal.
“We are extremely disappointed to have to take this decision, particularly because New Jersey is poised to be a U.S. and global hub for offshore wind energy,” HardyOcean Wind 1 would have been New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm — a project 15 miles off the South Jersey coast big enough to generate power for a half-million homes. It was expected to help launch a multipart supply chain in the state and provide hundreds of new jobs.
One of the Murphy administration’s top legislative priorities this year was a law meant to save Ocean Wind 1 from financial ruin by allowing the company to keep federal tax incentives that would have otherwise been used to lower ratepayer bills. David Hardy , CEO of Orsted Offshore North America, is shown. Only one of the three wind farms New Jersey utility regulators have approved is left following Orsted’s exit. | David Goldman/AP