EPA Environmental Appeals Board Halts Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project

A decision from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board (Board) remanded a final permit for the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind project (Atlantic Shores Project or Project). The Project, located off the coast of New Jersey, had obtained its final construction permit from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and its Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Clean Air Act permit from the EPA. In February of this year, the EPA Region 2 filed a motion for voluntary remand, asking the Board to return the permit to the agency so that it could evaluate the Project as part of a comprehensive review required by President Donald Trump's January 20 Memorandum, which paused all offshore wind leasing on the OCS. This decision is the first permit remand halting an offshore wind project in the late-state permitting phase, resulting in precedent that may affect future offshore wind projects.