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- Orsted Wind Sues Ocean City Over Permit Delays
Hoo boy. History will remember this day.
The day that America’s Green Agenda was thwarted by… the guy who owns Wonderland Pier.
I’m kidding. Mostly.
So what’s going on?
Orsted, the Danish company behind the Ocean Wind 1 project that just about everybody hates, sued Ocean City in state court last week. They claim the city is unnecessarily delaying approvals for them to lay electric transmission lines from their proposed offshore wind turbines through the center of Ocean City, under the bay, and ultimately to the Beesleys Point Power substation in Marmora.
Jay Smash
Mayor Gillian thinks their lawsuit and claims are preposterous, and is leaning on the fact that alternative routes for the line around around Ocean City were never seriously considered as Orsted prefers to just plow (literally) under the city.
Last year, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities basically said Ocean City had no say in the matter, a ruling the city has appealed.
In a statement obtained by OCNJ Daily, Gillian stood his ground:
“The lawsuit continues a pattern that Ocean Wind presumes the offshore wind project is a done deal and they will resort to any means to maintain their desired schedule.”
“The application to open Ocean City’s streets comes before the federal decision on whether the project can be built in the first place. It came before the decision on whether the project can cross state tidal lands.”
“Rather than await the decision of the Appellate Division, Ocean Wind is demanding street-opening permits to pursue the route that is the subject of the appeal.”
Will This Tactic Actually Work?
Probably not. This is a federal- and state-backed project, with a flood of political attention, and something tells me processing delays on local permits won’t be the thing that does it in.
But you gotta hand it to the mayor and Ocean City in general, handing out permit delays like the penguins from the Snow Kingdom in the Super Mario Movie rapid-catapulting snowballs at Bowser while he encroaches upon their kingdom:
Do you yield?
I do not, says Orsted.
I can see it now, right there on 34th Street— Ocean City’s Tiananmen Square moment: a couple of surfers, a striped bass fishermen who’s also a realtor, a few year-rounders, and Chuck Bangle from Manco and Manco standing in front of Orsted backhoes as they attempt to onshore a transmission line, all while a fleet of skid steers work happily on a new mini golf course with water features just feet away.
Anyway, jokes aside, Orsted demands that Ocean City approve the permits by June 16 or else(!) the project will face further delays.
As it currently stands, Orsted just received a big set of approvals last week, but still needs many state and local permits before the project is fully green-lit.