Permit for offshore wind farm Trump wants 'dead and gone' voided

A key permit for the Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm off New Jersey that Donald Trump wants “dead and gone” has been voided by an administrative appeals board, which cited the president’s order barring new leasing for such projects.

The US government’s Environmental Appeals Board issued a decision on 14 March voiding the air pollution permit for the 1.5GW Atlantic Shores project that has been developed by oil major Shell and French state-owned utility EDF.

The decision comes six months after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the clean air permit for the Atlantic Shores off New Jersey in September last year. Civic group Save LBI (Long Beach Island) filed a petition for review of that order in October.

Trump returned to the White House on 20 January and issued an order on his first day back in office pausing all leasing for new offshore wind projects in US waters. Trump has singled out the Atlantic Shores project as one he wants “dead and gone”.

Late last month, the EPA filed a request that the appeals board remand the Atlantic Shores permit back to it so that the agency could “reevaluate the Project and its environmental impacts in light of the January 20, 2025 Presidential Memorandum.”

Atlantic Shores objected, arguing that the EPA had not provided “good cause” for the motion and that it is not in the interest of administrative or judicial efficiency.

The appeals board said that it has “broad discretion to grant a voluntary remand,” which it said is available where the permitting authority has decided to make a substantive change to one or more permit conditions, or otherwise wishes to “reconsider some element of the permit decision before reissuing the permit.”

Atlantic Shores argued that the EPA had “not identified any condition in the Final Permit it is seeking to substantively change, nor any element of the Final Permit decision it wishes to reconsider before reissuing the permit.”

But the appeals board said it treats requests for voluntary remand “liberally and is not limited to circumstances” where the EPA provides “specific substantive changes to the final permit or specific elements of the permit decision it seeks to reconsider.”

It cited a submission from the EPA that it plans to “confer with other executive branch agencies regarding further evaluation of various impacts that may result from the Project, including impacts on birds, wildlife, fishing, and other relevant environmental concerns described in the Presidential Memorandum.”

Atlantic Shores also argued that Trump’s memorandum “does not require or even allow” the EPA to withdraw or reconsider the final permit, issued on 30 September last year.

The appeals board said that Atlantic Shores appeared to base this argument on its view that the EPA has already issued a “final permit.”

However, it said that a petition was filed challenging the EPA decision and the agency “has now filed its Motion to reconsider the permit application and permit decision in light of the Presidential Memorandum before the Permit becomes final agency action.”

The appeals board said the EPA’s final decision does not occur until a regional administrator issues a subsequent “final permit decision” after administrative review proceedings are “exhausted.”

The appeals board also dismissed an Atlantic Shores argument that moving for a voluntary remand “without good cause” has the effect of “circumventing the statutory timeframe” provided in the Clean Air Act and contravenes the terms of Atlantic Shores’ lease.

More to come?

Bob Stern, who leads the Save LBI coalition, said that to his knowledge it is the “first time that a federal approval for any offshore wind project has been overturned”.

“We are hopeful other federal agencies” will take note of the move “and reconsider their prior approvals,” he said.