Ruling Gives EPA Green Light to Suspend Approvals for New Jersey Wind Power Project

In a potential precedent, an appeals board says the agency can ’remand' Atlantic Shores’ permits under Trump’s directive halting offshore wind development.

Wind turbines generate electricity at the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States, Block Island, near Rhode Island, on July 7, 2022. John Moore/Getty Images

A federal agency appeals board has upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s suspension of approved permits for a massive wind power venture off New Jersey’s coast in compliance with President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive action imposing an immediate freeze in offshore wind development and leasing.

It could be the first of many similar remands, or reconsiderations, of issued permits in coming months as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the president’s directive, pauses wind power projects that have been permitted but haven’t started construction.