Pascrell Celebrates Announcement on Atlantic Shores Wind Projects in New Jersey

Last year, Pascrell led delegation colleagues supporting New Jersey offshore development to provide energy for homes and create 22,000 jobs

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) celebrated an announcement this morning by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) that it would commence next steps in developing new offshore wind projects off the Garden State’s coast. The availability of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for two wind energy projects offshore New Jersey is the next step in helping meet the administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. If approved, the two projects could generate about 2,800 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power almost 1 million homes. This announcement follows direct advocacy from Pascrell for over a year. On January 14, 2022, Pascrell led nearly the entire New Jersey congressional delegation calling on the Biden administration to construct these two offshore wind energy projects.

“So-called ‘once in a century’ storms are occurring a lot more than every hundred years,” said Congressman Pascrell. “The BOEM has rightly put forward a draft environmental study to accelerate wind energy development in our state. The expected benefits to the state are beautiful: the Atlantic Shores projects are expected to create more than 22,000 new full-time jobs and power nearly 1 million homes. Atlantic Shores has shown a commitment to making our state a leader in the green economy by investing in workforce training programs with New Jersey academic institutions and using local union labor from six unions operating in our state. All told, an estimated $1.9 billion in benefits to our great state are expected to be created over the life of this project. Fighting climate change and giving our nation clean energy and more union jobs depends on us expanding wind energy projects far, wide, and fast. I look forward to closely reviewing the draft environmental study and will vigorously oppose any efforts by those who are not using science and the evidence to attack this project.”

“As BOEM moves forward with our environmental reviews, we are committed to working with Tribal nations, government agency partners, lessees, environmental organizations, local communities, ocean users and others,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “By working together, we can build a strong, enduring offshore wind industry that ensures American communities across the nation benefit from good paying jobs and clean, reliable, domestic renewable energy.”

According to BOEM, Atlantic Shores submitted a combined Construction and Operations plan (COP) for two wind energy facilities and associated export cables on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore New Jersey: the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project 1 and Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project 2. The two projects are collectively referred to as the Atlantic Shores South Wind Project. The combined proposal includes up to 200 total wind turbines and up to ten offshore substations with subsea transmission cables making landfall at up to two New Jersey locations: in Atlantic City, Sea Girt, or both. The lease area is expected to cover approximately 102,124 acres and is approximately 8.7 statute miles offshore New Jersey at its closest point. Project 1 has an Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate award from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for 1,510 MW of offshore wind power, enough to power 528,000 homes. Atlantic Shores is seeking a second power offtake agreement for Project 2, which has a goal of generating 1,327 MW, enough to power about 464,450 homes.

Atlantic Shores expects to invest in the green economy by supporting workforce training and using local union labor from six unions in New Jersey, including Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Laborers’ International Union of North America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 456, Local 400 and Local 351, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, Ironworkers International and Eastern Millwright Regional Council.

Additionally, Atlantic Shores is funding science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education programs, environmental protection efforts, and research at New Jersey’s leading academic institutions, including Rutgers University, Stockton University and Rowan College.

Rep. Pascrell has praised the auctioning offshore New Jersey and New York to generate clean energy for millions. Pascrell is the lead House sponsor of the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act, which was included in the Moving Forward Act and enacted into law in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 in 2020. It provides an investment tax credit for offshore wind development. Pascrell also fought to include offshore wind manufacturing incentives in the House-passed Build Back Better bill that was blocked by Republican senators in the 117th Congress. In addition, Pascrell co-led a letter to support offshore wind development in the New York Bight.

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