A bill that could give fresh impetus to Fishermen’s Energy’s stalled 24MW offshore wind project off the coast of Atlantic City in New Jersey has passed the committee stage in the US state’s assembly, according to local media.
The bill, numbered A2485, passed through the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee and would require the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to consider an amended application for a qualified wind energy project offshore in certain New Jersey waters.
It does not mention the Fishermen’s Energy project by name but the reports say the wind farm is the only one that could qualify to meet the criteria of A2485.
Fishermen’s Energy missed out on $40m of federal funding for the demonstration project at the end of 2016 after it failed to secure a power offtake agreement by a 31 December deadline.
Two similar bills to A2485 had passed the assembly previously but were vetoed by the former governor Chris Christie, the reports said. New Jersey now has a new governor, Phil Murphy, who signed an executive order in January setting a target of 3.5GW of offshore wind in the state by 2030.
US green group Sierra Club criticised the new bill. NJ Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel said the legislation could harm the state’s ability to reach the 3.5GW offshore goal, the first stage of which would be a 1.1GW call led by the BPU.
Tittel said: “We need to focus on putting together programmes and mechanisms to get the 1100MW built further off the coast.
“This project was designed 10 years ago and today we have better ones designed. We believe we should be pushing for these long-term goals before funding any other, smaller, projects.”
Image: Fishermen’s Energy
NJ ‘lifeline’ for Fishermen’s
By EBS