Vin Gopal: State Of NJ Should Sue Orsted For Canceling Wind Farms

LONG BRANCH, NJ — In the wake of Tuesday night's surprise announcement that Danish company Orsted will no longer build what would have been New Jersey's first wind farm off Atlantic City, state Sen. Vin Gopal now says the state of New Jersey should sue Orsted.

“We are formally calling on the Attorney General to sue Orsted for fraud and negligence and to get back every dollar given to them from that horrendous subsidy bill. This was a bad deal for ratepayers and it is up to the Attorney General to recover every single tax dollar wasted," said Gopal, joined by fellow Democratic Assembly candidates Dr. Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul.

All three are running for election next Tuesday, Nov. 7.

In late June, Orsted asked for nearly $500 million in tax breaks to build the wind farms, which Gov. Murphy, joined by Statehouse Democrats, gave them.

Going against the majority of his Democratic party, Gopal did not vote for those wind subsidies. Then and now, he called the tax breaks "a disaster."

"There were two parts to that bill in June: Orsted was given about half a billion dollars in tax breaks. And also, the bill was written where if the wind farms did not go through — if they backed out for any reason — they would have to pay a $300-million penalty," Gopal told Patch Wednesday. "Now the state of New Jersey needs to go after them."

Gov. Murphy sounded furious in a statement he released minutes after Orsted announced the news Tuesday night. The governor said he is "reviewing" whether he will sue Orsted:

"My administration insisted upon important protections that ensure New Jersey will receive $300 million to support the offshore wind sector should Orsted’s New Jersey projects fail to proceed," said Murphy Tuesday night. "I have directed my administration to review all legal rights and remedies and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Orsted fully and immediately honors its obligations."

Gopal is the Democrat who represents LD 11, which includes the towns of Eatontown, Long Branch, Tinton Falls and more.

Meanwhile, the Republican trying to unseat him, Steve Dnistrian, criticized Gopal for "supporting the offshore wind industry from the beginning. Murphy, Gopal and the Democrats who supported this disastrous offshore wind policy since 2018 were about to destroy our beautiful Jersey Shore forever."

And State House Republicans sent this letter to Gov. Murphy Nov. 1, calling for a full accounting of how much money New Jersey has given Orsted so far, including in tax breaks.

Other wind farms off Jersey Shore still moving forward

Orsted's wind farm would have been New Jersey's first offshore wind farm. However, plans are still moving forward on other wind farms off the Jersey Shore: Another Norwegian company called StatOil is working with British Petroleum (BP) to build Empire Wind 1 and 2 off Long Branch. Empire Wind 1 and 2 will be the largest wind farms to date, with 174 monopiles.

Learn more about Empire Wind here.

Also, Atlantic Shores wind farm is still proceeding about 10 miles off Barnegat Light, Long Beach Island.

Orsted, which is owned in part by BP, is also still moving forward to build Revolution Wind off Connecticut and Rhode Island, and another wind farm called South Fork Wind off Long Island.

Why did Orsted pull out?

Orsted has not said anything beyond "supply chain issues." But the NJ Sierra Club, which strongly supports offshore wind, said the project was killed by current high interest rates.

"The current challenges around offshore wind project prices are a temporary reflection of power purchase agreements that were signed before the pandemic, when high supply chain costs and interest rates were unforeseen," the NJ Sierra Club said Wednesday afternoon. "Since Orsted received their bid before the 2020 global pandemic, the cost of steel has increased 50% from the start of 2020 to the end of 2021, for example."

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