Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a precedent allowing federal agencies to interpret ambiguous laws as they saw fit, as long as the interpretations were reasonable.
Now, a New Jersey organization hopes the high bench will use last year’s decision to upend the regulatory process that led to the approval of offshore wind projects in the Northeast.
A group of fisheries sued the U.S. Interior Department in 2023 to challenge the approval of an offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, but the challenges have so far failed, and the fisheries are now asking the Supreme Court to take the case.
Protect Our Coast NJ, an organization opposed to coastal wind projects in the Garden State, filed a brief also asking the Supreme Court to hear the case.
The group’s amicus curiae—or “friend of the court” brief—accuses “climate activists” within the Biden administration of ignoring harmful economic and environmental impacts when reviewing the Massachusetts wind farm. The brief, authored by Cape May GOP Chairman and former Superior Court judge Mike Donohue, argues the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision to limit the executive branch’s regulatory powers should apply to the permitting in this case.
POCNJ President Robin Shaffer said the lawsuit is one step in the fight against the “industrialization” of oceans.
“POCNJ is happy to support Seafreeze in its efforts against the Vineyard Wind project,” Shaffer said. “Vineyard Wind is the site of the single worst offshore wind environmental disaster in U.S. history. This was a direct result of the Biden Administration’s shadow regulatory approach that cut corners in order to rush offshore wind projects through the permitting process.”
POCNJ is one of several groups to submit an amicus brief. Other organizations include the America First Policy Institute & The Independent Women’s Forum and the Save Right Whales Coalition.
If victorious, the challengers could force a stronger regulatory process for future offshore wind projects, regardless of who is president.
“There can be no doubt whatsoever that the Biden Administration handed its review of offshore wind projects to climate activists within the Administration who created a shadow regulatory process that intentionally ignored the multiple statutory and regulatory requirements related to economic impact,” the brief reads. “In so doing, the Biden Administration not only moved the extraordinarily endangered right whale one step closer to extinction, it also placed in economic peril countless businesses and families that depend on commercial fishing and coastal tourism for their livelihood.”
The Supreme Court will now decide whether to grant certiorari. Typically, four justices must vote to take up a case for the Court to hear it.
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