“The decision to scale back New Jersey's State Agreement Approach (SAA) transmission projects is disappointing, however, fundamentally, a decision the Trump Administration forced on this state.

New Jersey was the first state in the nation to design and use a State Agreement Approach with PJM — a transmission-first model built to deliver offshore wind to the grid at the lowest possible cost to ratepayers. It was innovative policy, well designed, and working as intended. What changed is not New Jersey's commitment to clean energy. What changed is the federal and economic landscape the SAA was built to serve.

Since January 2025, the Trump Administration has issued a presidential memorandum halting new offshore wind permits, directed the Department of the Interior to review projects already in progress, had the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management move to rescind previously designated offshore wind energy areas, and issued multiple stop-work orders on projects already under construction. The consequences for the generation projects the SAA was designed to carry have been exactly what was intended by those federal actions: Atlantic Shores withdrew, citing federal policy that made the project unviable; Leading Light cancelled, citing the same. Building transmission in advance of when the projects come online is thoughtful planning and can save ratepayers money in the long run, however, with no certainty about when those next projects can come online, continuing to build out roughly $1 billion transmission package would saddle New Jersey families with costs for infrastructure that cannot do its job.

Governor Sherrill is navigating circumstances that she does not and did not control. Her administration is acting as a responsible steward of ratepayer and taxpayer dollars by refusing to force New Jerseyans to pay for the consequences of federal sabotage. That is not walking away from offshore wind. It is protecting the people of this state from being billed for Washington's decisions.

It is important that this conversation stay focused on what it actually is. The SAA decision is about federally-induced offshore wind generation uncertainty and the transmission infrastructure tied to it.

The best evidence that offshore wind itself is not the problem is what is happening across the Northeast. Off the coast of Long Island, South Fork Wind — America's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm — has been delivering 132 megawatts of clean energy to roughly 70,000 homes since coming fully online in 2024, providing over a year of real-world proof that offshore wind is a reliable, working resource. Just to the north, Vineyard Wind completed construction off the coast of Massachusetts, and Revolution Wind began delivering power to Connecticut and Rhode Island — the two projects becoming the largest renewable energy projects in operation east of the Mississippi River, with enough capacity to power roughly 750,000 homes. Massachusetts projects Vineyard Wind alone will save its ratepayers $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of operation. Independent analysts have estimated that if both projects had been fully operational during the 2024–2025 winter, they would have more than halved the risk of demand-driven power outages in the region — because offshore wind performs at its strongest precisely when cold-weather demand strains gas-dependent grids the most. Both projects reached this milestone despite stop-work orders from the Trump Administration — orders the courts twice overturned.

>In other words: the resource works. The projects get built. The savings materialize. What is standing in the way, in New Jersey and across the country, is a federal policy posture designed to prevent those outcomes.
New Jersey's SAA decision is a responsible response to that reality — not an abandonment of the clean energy future this state remains committed to building.”

Anjuli Ramos-Busot,
Director
New Jersey Sierra Club

Doug O’Malley
Director
Environment New Jersey

Heidi Yeh
Policy Director
Pinelands Alliance

Sam Salustro
Senior Vice President
Oceantic Network

Robert Freudenberg
Vice President, Energy & Environment
Regional Plan Association

Rebecca C. Lubot, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Executive Director
New Jersey Sustainable Business Network