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Posts Tagged ‘court filing’

Interesting case: Delaware litigation on approval of the Coastal Construction Permit for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project

Posted in decommissioning, energy policy, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , on October 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Dept. of the Interior is currently reconsidering approval of the Construction and Operations Plan for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project (US Wind).

Attached is a court filing challenging Delaware’s approval of the Coastal Construction Plan for that project. Some interesting points from the filing:

  • Maryland local governments declined to allow the transmission lines from the Maryland Offshore Wind Project to come ashore in their jurisdictions.
  • The Governor of Delaware agreed to allow the transmission lines to make landfall at the Delaware Seashore State Park.
  • The transmission pipelines would then traverse the adjacent Delaware Bays, to an inland substation, from which the power would be sent to Maryland.
  • US Wind applied for a number of permits from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources (DNREC) specific to horizontal directional drilling, laying cable pipelines, and other coastal construction activity.
  • The approval process, including provisions for public input, was not consistent with State regulations.
  • The Secretary’s decision to issue the beach construction permit is supported virtually exclusively by documents which were submitted by US Wind after the close of public comment.
  • Decommissioning and financial assurance information, a favorite BOE topic for both wind and oil/gas, was submitted after the close of the public record.
CRI US Wind Superior Ct Opening Brief Final version 5Download

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Norway named in Empire Wind complaint! Another first for the US OCS program.

Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , on June 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Protect Our Coast – NJ graphic

Along with other charges, the attached complaint asserts that awarding a wind lease to Norway’s Equinor, violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA):

  1. As an agency or instrumentality of Norway, Equinor cannot receive a lease on the Outer Continental Shelf for offshore wind turbine development or generation of electric power.

While other elements of the complaint appear to have merit, the charge against Norway does not. Here’s why:

  • US subsidiaries of foreign companies have long held leases under the OCS Lands Act.
  • Equinor US Wind is the US subsidiary holding the wind lease.
  • Equinor USA E&P holds interests in OCS oil and gas leases in the Gulf of America. BOEM credits 548,389 barrels of oil production to Equinor for 2023.
  • Chinese state-owned CNOOC has been an oil and gas lessee in the Gulf of America.
  • US subsidiaries of Shell and BP, both foreign corporations, are the top 2 producers in the Gulf. Although not government owned, there is nothing in OCSLA that distinguishes between US subsidiaries of private and govt owned companies. Woodside (Australia) and Eni (Italy) are also important Gulf producers.

The plaintiffs second count (excerpt below) seems to have more merit. The bulk of the filing pertains to this count.

  1. BOEM never completed its “necessary review”, see Stop Work Order, April 16, 2025, and, instead, reinstated the Empire Wind work permit on May 19, 2025 without any explanation or finding, stating as follows:
    On April 16, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a Director’s Order to Empire Offshore Wind LLC to halt all ongoing activities related to the Empire Wind Project on the outer continental shelf. That Order is hereby amended to lift the halt on activities during the ongoing review.

The complaint goes on to discuss the reasons why the plaintiffs believe the review was indeed necessary and should have been conducted.

empirelawsuitDownload

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