TRENTON, N.J. – As the only legislator living in Salem County, where Gov. Phil Murphy has promised to create jobs at the wind port, Assemblywoman Bethanne McCarthy Patrick says her residents are questioning the governor’s credibility after Orsted announced it is abandoning its offshore wind commitments in New Jersey.
On Tuesday, Danish multinational energy company Orsted scrapped its plans to build two New Jersey offshore wind projects, Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2, due to supply chain issues and rising interest rates. How that announcement impacts Orsted’s $25 million agreement with the state to sublease property at the wind port in Lower Alloways Creek is of major concern to McCarthy Patrick’s constituents, she says.
“The Murphy administration said the sublease with Orsted would create 200 jobs at the wind port. That’s a big deal to little Salem County, so our residents are rightly concerned about their opportunities here,” McCarthy Patrick (R-Salem) said. “People living here don’t have the means to just pick up and move on like Orsted did. Our livelihoods can’t come at the expense of Murphy’s foolish policies that padded the pockets of a foreign company and failed to benefit locals.”
In June, McCarthy Patrick blasted the Democrats’ proposal to divert millions in federal tax credits to Orsted instead of returning them to utility customers.
“South Jersey has little to show in the way of any real economic gain from the state’s offshore wind push despite guarantees that these ports would produce more than 1,500 jobs for Salem County. Instead of good-paying union jobs and American-made, we get German labor and foreign imports,” she said.
Orsted also signed on to be the first client at EEW American Offshores Structures’ manufacturing facility at the Port of Paulsboro Marine Terminal in Gloucester County. However, delays at the facility have meant that most of the hardware and labor to build the massive monopiles that support wind turbines have come from overseas.
“Democrats have failed to deliver on their commitments to the people of South Jersey and it’s putting us further behind,” McCarthy Patrick said. “South Jersey deserves real investments and good paying jobs, not phony deals and broken promises.”