January 27, 2025 — Three people working at a New Jersey seafood wholesaler were detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on 23 January.
It is unclear whether ICE’s visit to the business was part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed changes to immigration enforcement or part of the previous administration’s immigration policy, though a Trump administration official confirmed similar arrests of at least 538 people on 23 January across the country.
January 24, 2025 — President Donald Trump is hopeful that the Atlantic Shores South offshore wind farm is “dead and gone” following his executive order that has temporarily halted leasing and permitting for wind farm projects in the country.
“Hopefully the project is dead and gone, as almost all unsightly and environmentally unsound Windmill project should be,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post thanking Rep. Jeff Van Drew for his fighting against the wind farm, which is set to be constructed between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island.
However, Atlantic Shores South already received federal approvals this past October. It’s not yet clear how the executive order will impact the project and it is likely to be challenged in court. A company spokesperson declined to comment.
January 17, 2025 — New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, a Republican from Cape May County, said he’s working with President-elect Donald Trump on an executive order that “would halt offshore wind on the East Coast.”
“These offshore wind projects should have never been approved in the first place,” Van Drew said in a statement, referring to President Joe Biden’s effort to expand renewable energy as a “reckless green agenda that put politics over people.”
He says the executive order is just the first step in reversing course on the state’s offshore wind development.
“We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this offshore wind catastrophe from wreaking havoc on the hardworking people who call our coastal towns home,” Van Drew said.
January 17, 2025 — President-elect Donald Trump tasked a New Jersey congressman and vocal critic of offshore wind with writing an executive order he could issue to halt wind energy projects.
Offshore wind is a major part of transitioning to an electric grid powered entirely by sources that don’t emit carbon dioxide when generating electricity. The power sector is responsible for nearly a third of the nation’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to end the offshore wind industry as soon as he returned to the White House. He wants to boost production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, which cause climate change, in order for the U.S. to have the lowest-cost energy and electricity of any nation in the world, he says.
Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said he spoke with Trump by phone about a month ago and urged him to act on his campaign promise.
January 16, 2025 — A local grassroots organization is continuing its battle in the courtroom to have offshore wind farms off Long Beach Island and Brigantine scrapped in perpetuity without a chance of being revived in the future, even as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to deliver on his campaign promise to permanently stop offshore wind energy projects off the East Coast under his administration.
A presidential executive order halting wind turbine activity off the East Coast is expected to be finalized in the first few months of his second presidency.
“These offshore wind projects should never have been approved in the first place,” Congressman Jeff Van Drew said Jan. 13, adding he has been working closely with Trump to draft the order, which also lays the groundwork for permanent measures against the projects.
Whether the permanent measures are related to national security is unknown, but in November, Sweden, a country viewed as wind turbine friendly, rejected certain offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea due to concerns over radar interference and national security.
What is known is that in the days almost immediately following Sweden’s action, elevated drone sightings over New Jersey and other East Coast states began. Those reports reached a frenzy last month as federal agencies punted on what New Jersey residents were seeing and where the so-called drone incursions originated. (See related story in this edition.)
“That’s one of the issues connected to this (Atlantic Shores) project because we have military radars in Gibbsboro, N.J.,” Bob Stern, president of Save LBI, said at the time, explaining radar is used to protect against unwanted activities in the ocean and would be impacted by offshore wind turbines.
“There have been rumblings from our Department of Defense about this project and other projects. We’ve not been able to really get a lot of information about that, maybe because some of it is classified. But I’m pretty sure our defense department has had some issues with this (radar interference) as well,” Stern said.
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind did not respond to a request for comment as of The SandPaper deadline.
Meanwhile, Van Drew said earlier this week the outgoing administration rammed offshore wind projects through an approval process that lacked proper oversight, transparent lease agreements and a full understanding of the consequences.
“They are an economic and environmental disaster waiting to happen,” Van Drew said. “President Trump is committed to stopping these harmful projects and is taking decisive action. This executive order is just the beginning. We will fight tooth and nail to prevent this offshore wind catastrophe from wreaking havoc on the hardworking people who call our coastal towns home.”
Paulina O’Connor, executive director of the New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance, disagrees.
“It is well documented that all proposed offshore wind projects go through rigorous reviews at all levels of government and there are extensive processes in place to provide members of the public the opportunity to participate in hearings and provide comments on all proposed projects. Recent comments and actions suggesting otherwise are misleading,” O’Connor said when reached the evening of Jan. 13. “Offshore wind remains New Jersey’s best solution to achieve energy independence.”
January 14, 2025 — At the urging of a New Jersey congressman, offshore wind activities would have to hit the brakes under a new executive order that places a temporary moratorium on the industry.
Offshore wind developers — like they’ve done for years — continue to analyze lease areas to determine where offshore wind farms might be constructed. Hundreds are planned across the East Coast, including New Jersey.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd District, has been among the most vocal government critics of the nascent energy provider, which has yet to build one offshore wind farm off Jersey’s coast. Last week, the congressman said — at the behest of President-elect Donald Trump’s team — his office drafted an executive order that if issued (action from Congress is not needed) would halt offshore wind activities for six months for a review.
The pause, first reported by NJ Spotlight News, would be in place as federal regulators take a deeper look at the industry’s plans and impacts. Exactly what that means is not clear.
January 8, 2025 — A U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan dismissed a case against Cooke Seafood Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates that alleged it defrauded the U.S. in the operation of its East Coast menhaden processing facility in Virginia.
Menhaden, known colloquially as pogies and bunker, are a critically important filter-feeding baitfish in the ocean and estuaries along the East Coast, including here in New Jersey, where they are fed on by whales, birds and economically valuable finfish. While the menhaden are not overfished, the stock has contracted, leading to dust-ups between environmental groups and harvesters over the quota.
In a prepared statement, Cooke Inc. said it’s “pleased that the court has dismissed this baseless lawsuit, which we have always maintained was without merit. For over a decade, the individuals behind this lawsuit have repeatedly targeted menhaden harvesters and processors to undermine a sustainable and essential sector of the fishing industry.”
November 27, 2024 — A New Jersey shore community is calling on state regulators and an offshore wind company to conduct a transparent and detailed safety analysis on the turbines selected for the Atlantic Shores South Project.
Save Long Beach Island, a group dedicated to preserving the New Jersey shoreline, sent two invitations to the developers of the Atlantic Shores South Project to participate in a panel discussion on the proposed 200 wind turbines plotted for 8.7 miles offshore. Both requests were ignored.
November 21, 2024 — While President-elect Donald Trump has promised to do away with offshore wind, it’s unknown whether his incoming administration will follow Sweden’s lead of rejecting certain projects due to concerns over radar interference and its impact on national security.
“That was really interesting, because Sweden has been a strong proponent of these turbines,” Bob Stern, president and co-founder of Save LBI, said of reports that Sweden had blocked more than a dozen offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea. “They apparently realized the number of turbines were going to interfere with their military radars onshore. They’re a little concerned now about Russia, and they did not want to tolerate an impairment of their defense capability.”
His comments came during the Nov. 12 Beach Haven Borough Council meeting, where he discussed litigation related to Atlantic Shores as well as a number of initiatives related to offshore wind that might be undertaken by the second Trump administration.
“That’s one of the issues connected to this (Atlantic Shores) project because we have military radars in Gibbsboro, N.J.,” Stern said, explaining radar is used to protect against unwanted things in the ocean and would be impacted by offshore wind turbines. “There have been rumblings from our Department of Defense about this project and other projects. We’ve not been able to really get a lot of information about that, maybe because some of it is classified. But I’m pretty sure our defense department has had some issues with this (radar interference), as well.”
November 14, 2024 — While President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make sweeping changes to national energy policy, including doing away with offshore wind on Day 1 of his new term, a local grassroots organization isn’t letting that news get in its way of fighting the construction of what is poised to be the country’s largest wind farm some 9 miles off the coast of Long Beach Island.
“We will be filing major lawsuits by the end of the month to invalidate at least some of those prior federal approvals,” Bob Stern, president and cofounder of Save LBI, said just days after voters returned Trump to office for a second term. “In addition, we will be seeking to have the lease area itself canceled so that new projects will not be resurrected in the future.”
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind calls for 200 turbines in a lease zone that covers about 102,124 acres and is approximately 8.7 miles off LBI at its closest point. Projects 1 and 2 include roughly 10 offshore wind substations with subsea transmission cables that could make landfall in Atlantic City to the south and Sea Girt in the north.
“You’ll see these things all over the place. They destroy everything. They’re horrible and the most expensive energy there is. They ruin the environment,” Trump told supporters at his May rally in Wildwood, about an hour south of the Island. “They kill the birds. They kill the whales.”