04/17/2025
*Michael J. Donohue, Esquire, statement on Interior Department Offshore Wind Directive
APRIL 16, 2025
US SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR DOUG BURGUM ORDERS HALT TO EMPIRE WIND PROJECT
Echoes Protect Our Coast NJ Arguments Recently Submitted to US Supreme Court by former Judge Mike Donohue
US Secretary of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum today issued a Directive to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to “order Empire Wind to cease all construction activities” at the location of its offshore wind project off of northern New Jersey and south of New York City. The Secretary indicated that “staff of the Department of the Interior has obtained information that raises serious issues with respect to the project approvals for” the project and that “the project was rushed through by the prior Administration.”
On April 9, 2025, on behalf of Protect Our Coast NJ (POCNJ), a grassroots organization opposed to offshore wind, we filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in the matter of Seafreeze Shoreside et al v. US Department of the Interior, et al. We argued that “In an effort to have the United States ‘catch up’ with it’s so-called ‘climate goals’ under the Paris Accords, the Presidential Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., embarked on a breakneck process that ignored regulatory governors and guardrails in order to fast-track the approval of the installation of hundreds of industrial offshore wind energy generation facilities.”
We are extremely grateful that Secretary Burgum sees what we have seen when it comes to the Biden Administration’s reckless approval of offshore wind projects. As we said in our brief, “These issues are not going away. At present, there are multiple lawsuits across several states, including multiple matters before this Court, related to the regulatory and administrative transgressions of the Biden Administration in its efforts on behalf of offshore wind corporations. Dozens of outer continental shelf lease areas for offshore wind remain extant. Even now, the foreign corporate owners of the Empire Wind project off of North Jersey, New York and New England are dumping hundreds of thousands of tons of rock onto the seabed for stabilization in advance of the installation of dozens of wind turbines over the course of the next several months.”
Secretary Burgum’s Directive recognizes these realities and puts a stop to the Empire Wind project right now. Great thanks is due to Congressman Jeff Van Drew and Congressman Chris Smith for their tireless efforts to oppose the industrialization of our coastal environment by foreign offshore wind corporations.
*Michael J, Donohue, Esquire is a partner at Blaney, Donohue & Weinberg and a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge. Judge Donohue represented the County of Cape May in its successful effort to stop Orsted’s Ocean Wind One and Two projects off of Cape May County.
