New Jersey Archives - Page 3 of 106

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey revokes approval for Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm; company calls it ‘a pause’

August 14, 2025 — New Jersey utility regulators on Wednesday canceled their preliminary approval of the Atlantic Shores offshore wind energy project as the industry continues to struggle with financial challenges and an all-out assault from President Donald Trump.

But the company called the action “a pause,” not necessarily the end of the project.

The state Board of Public Utilities terminated the Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate for Atlantic Shores, a proposed two-phase wind farm between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light with 197 wind turbines capable of powering 1 million homes.

On June 4, Atlantic Shores asked the BPU to do so, saying the project is “no longer viable” due to Trump’s war on wind power and economic challenges facing the industry.

But it also indicated it might seek to revive the project in the future, calling the cancellation “a reset period.”

Where Steel and Concrete Meets Sea: Artificial Reefs Along the Atlantic Coast

August 14, 2025 — Beneath the Atlantic surface, concrete pyramids, stripped subway cars, and massive steel skeletons of vessels lie purposefully placed across the ocean floor repurposed into bustling undersea metropolises. These are artificial reefs, human-made sanctuaries giving new life to marine ecosystems and new opportunities for anglers.

Nearly all of these reef structures have roots in the Sport Fish Restoration Act, paid by manufacturers of fishing tackle and a tax on motorboat fuel. State agencies utilize these Sport Fish Restoration federal excise tax funds and funds from state fishing license sales to create a network of artificial reefs that dot the Atlantic coast.

New Jersey: Reefs from Rust and Rubble

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) began their artificial reef program in 1984 and has since created 17 artificial reef sites. Creating the reefs takes science, ingenuity, and often recycled materials. Artificial reef building materials have ranged from concrete reef balls to decommissioned New York City subway cars, and even retired Army tanks. Before entering the water, artificial reef materials go through a rigorous process stripping the material down to ensure no impact to water quality. Recycled building materials are inspected. Old Army tanks are stripped of fuel and oils. Subway cars lose their windows and wiring. What’s left is bare concrete or metal that is durable and colonizable by marine life.

Once these reef materials are deployed to the ocean bottom, Mother Nature wastes no time. Drop reef material, and within weeks, algae take hold. Months pass, invertebrates and fish begin to settle in. Within a year or two, the reef is real in every biological sense. “New Jersey’s reef sites are a hot spot for anglers with sportfish species like sea bass, porgy, tautog, and summer flounder calling the sites home,” said Pete Clarke from the NJDEP’s Artificial Reef Program.

New Jersey’s reefs are strategically located along the coast so that sites are within easy boat range of New Jersey ocean inlets making the sites accessible to anglers. Some reefs lay within two miles of the coast while others are 23 miles offshore offering users a variety of trip lengths and sport fish species to encounter. Reef communities can also vary depending on the season. “These reefs are important waypoints for migrating sport fish along the Atlantic Coast,” adds Clarke. Along this waypoint network of artificial reefs, it is common for state agencies to collaborate with other state agencies to share information or access to large reef building materials. “I know that an old New York City subway car utilized for a reef in South Carolina or concrete reef balls deployed in Delaware benefits the entire network of artificial reefs, ultimately it helps New Jersey’s reefs and anglers.”

Read the full article at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey energy regulators delay offshore wind infrastructure, cancel approval for Atlantic Shores project

August 14, 2025 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday delayed offshore wind power transmission infrastructure in the state by more than two years.

The BPU, which regulates utilities and helps shape the state’s energy policies, said the decision follows President Donald Trump’s move to block plans for offshore wind development.

“Today’s action is a direct response to a shift in federal policy under the current administration, which has created significant uncertainty and potential for offshore wind project delays,” said BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy in a statement.

The board also canceled its approval of the Atlantic Shores wind project, a two-phase wind farm between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light that aimed to power nearly 1 million homes.

The move was expected, as wind developer Atlantic Shores asked the BPU in June to cancel its contract for the 195-turbine project. The company called the move a temporary “reset” amid financial difficulties and industry uncertainties under a Trump administration that has vowed to increase coal, oil and gas production.

The BPU’s decisions are the latest blow to New Jersey’s plan to cut carbon emissions and reach 100% clean energy by 2035.

“At the end of the day, it’s very hard to lose 1,500 megawatts of electricity at a time when we need not just clean electricity but more electricity, so it’s tough,” Guhl-Sadovy said after the BPU canceled its approval of the Atlantic Shores project.

Read the full article at WHYY

NEW JERSEY: Belford Seafood Co-Op President Says Why He Joined Lawsuit Against Empire Wind Farm

August 12, 2025 — Middletown’s Belford Seafood Co-op joined a host of New Jersey commercial fishing companies in a federal lawsuit against Empire Wind, a wind farm owned by the Kingdom of Norway that is currently under construction 19 miles (17 nautical miles) off Long Branch.

And now today — for the first time — Belford Co-op president and fishing boat captain Richard Isaksen talks about why he is against the wind farm.

“It’s going to interfere with our fishing grounds. We fear we will be stopped from fishing there,” said Isaksen, who lives locally in Middletown. “It changes by season, but those are our prime grounds for fluke, flounder and squid. The underground cables could also disrupt fish.”

Read the full article at the Patch

NEW JERSEY: New Jersey fishermen net millions of dollars worth of fish, but diners demand more

August 11, 2025 — Sitting in a Point Pleasant Beach dockside eatery on a summer day, one can take in the sights and sounds of a lively fishing village at work. Sea gulls squawking, commercial boats coming and going, nets drying and lobster pots stacked up on the planked docks.

The aroma of sauteed shrimp and scallops, steam lobster and blue claw crabs water one’s mouth as a waitress or waiter brings you a menu full of seafood delicacies.

But the odds those menu items came from the where the fleet just returned are slim. In fact, this $3.2 billion New Jersey industry supplies just a fraction of the state’s ravenous appetite for seafood, especially when tourism drove more than 123 million to New Jersey last year — 20 million to Monmouth and Ocean counties alone. These visitors spent more than $14 billion on food and drinks, the state’s Division of Travel and Tourism reports.

To make up the difference, restaurants and fish markets must bring in seafood from other states and foreign countries.

Read the full article at Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Cancel Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Projects, LBI Group Asks Trump Admin

August 6, 2025 — A local anti-offshore wind group is petitioning the Trump Administration to cancel the Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm projects.

Save LBI announced Tuesday that the group had formally petitioned the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to cancel the leases for the Atlantic Shores South and North offshore wind projects and rescind existing permit approvals.

“We are committed to permanently stopping the Atlantic Shores projects,” Save LBI wrote in the petition. The group called for an expedited lease cancellation.

Read the full article at the Patch

NEW JERSEY: Middle Thorofare Bridge in Cape May County, New Jersey, is set to be replaced with $400 million project

July 23, 2025 — Last summer, CBS Philadelphia highlighted problems with the Middle Thorofare Bridge, which links Cape May and Wildwood Crest in New Jersey.

The bridge, which has carried hundreds of thousands of cars between the Wildwoods and Cape May, is in rough shape.

In fact, its condition keeps some local officials awake at night.

But now, there is a plan to completely replace the crossing.

Joe Rotondi was casting off, trying his luck in a new spot, just beneath the bridge.

The North Jersey native has traveled the bridge countless times, but underneath, he said, the angle was an eye-opener.

“It’s a little shaky,” Rotondi said. “I’m assuming it’s been here forever and things were built to last.”

On the other side of the inlet, things are busy off Wayne Reichle’s docks.

“We are harvesting between 75 to 100 million pounds of seafood annually,” Reichle, the president of Lund’s Fisheries, said.

Read the full article at CBS News

To maintain NY, NJ port traffic, feds seek new ocean site for 50 million cubic yards of dirt

July 1, 2025 — The feds are trying to figure out where to put 50 million cubic yards of ocean floor dirt.

By federal law, the shipping lanes of New York and New Jersey Harbor must be deep enough for large cargo ships. To maintain a depth of around 50 feet, the harbor requires constant dredging from the ocean floor. That dirt is dumped in an 18-square-mile patch of ocean nearly nine miles south of the Rockaways.

But that stretch of submerged landfill is nearly at capacity. And now, the Army Corps of Engineers is looking for a new site to dump the dirt — and it’s a surprisingly complex task.

The EPA produced maps showing where the dredged material could be dropped. The sites had to be within 40 miles of the harbor to be economically feasible. The site also had to be deeper than 75 feet, meaning more than five miles from shore. Navigation channels and anchorage areas were off limits, as well as locations designated for wind farms or submerged cables.

Fishing holes, however, were not off limits. The three proposed dumping areas are places where commercial fishers harvest scallops, herring, clams and squid.

“Obviously more material that goes out and is put on new sites becomes problematic for us because it’s basically fishing ground that historically we’ve been able to fish that we will now lose,” said Scot Mackey, an official with the Garden State Seafood Association. “We are concerned about all of the structure that is going out there and impacting our fishing grounds.”

Read the full article at The Gothamist

Opponents seek injunction to halt Empire Wind

June 13, 2025 — Commercial fishermen and opponents of the Empire Wind project asked a federal court to immediately halt pile driving and construction activity, weeks after the Trump administration allowed construction to resume.

The coalition, which filed a lawsuit June 3 in U.S. District Court, returned to ask for a preliminary injunction June 12, according to the group Protect Our Coast New Jersey.

Energy company Equinor would build an array of 54 turbines on its 80,000-acre federal lease near the approaches to New York Harbor. The plan dates back to December 2016 when Equinor (then known as Statoil) first won a lease sale by the federal Bureau of Ocean energy Management.

Commercial fishing advocates have long opposed wind projects in the area, citing nearby fishing grounds like the Mud Hole and Cholera Bank with historic mixed trawl fisheries, and sea scallops, the Mid-Atlantic’s most valuable fishery.

Protect Our Coast New Jersey contends the renewed construction poses “imminent, irreversible harm to marine life, fishing grounds, the seafood supply chain, and coastal economies.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Fishing Group Renews Effort to Stop Empire Wind

June 13, 2025 — The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association is among the groups calling for a renewed halt to the construction of the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm, which was the subject of a stop-work order in April that was lifted just a month later.

The organizations, which include Protect Our Coast-New Jersey and the Nantucket-based ACK for Whales, have called on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to issue a stop-work order on the 54-turbine, 810-megawatt project, which is to span 80,000 acres in the New York Bight and send renewable electricity to New York City. Mr. Burgum had done just that on April 16, reportedly at the urging of Representatives Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and with the support of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

A month later, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management informed Equinor, the Norwegian company that is constructing the wind farm, that the stop-work order had been lifted, allowing construction to resume. Gov. Kathy Hochul took credit for the reversal, saying that she had “spent weeks pushing the federal government to rescind the stop-work order” so that construction on “this important source of renewable power” could proceed.

The groups seeking to halt the project cited the June 2 death of a subcontractor aboard a platform supply vessel.

“Unlike [the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s] public reporting for oil and gas accidents, there is currently no centralized public reporting website for offshore wind fatalities or injuries,” the groups said in a statement. “The public, press, and fishing community were never informed of this fatality, echoing the lack of transparency seen after the Vineyard Wind LM107P blade implosion on July 13, 2024, when 55 tons of material were deposited into the ocean and washed onto Nantucket’s beaches, only disclosed 48 hours later.”

Read the full article at The East Hampton Star