Political Winds Changed in New Jersey. Could That Mean Wind Farms?

Few politicians claim more credit for the dismantling of the offshore wind industry in the Northeast than Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey. So the unseating of Mr. Van Drew in the recent midterm elections gave new hope to some advocates of renewable energy for the revival of massive wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean that had been scuttled by the Trump administration before they could be built. The question now is whether the ambitious plans that New Jersey, New York and other states had for developing fields of giant turbines to turn coastal winds into electricity will ever be resurrected.

For proponents of renewable energy, the narrow victory for Mr. Van Drew’s Democratic opponent, Zack Mullock , was a “pleasant surprise,” said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club. Mr. Van Drew was not solely responsible for short-circuiting the offshore wind industry’s progress, but “he had a lot to do with it,” she said. Mr. Van Drew, a Democrat turned Republican who morphed into one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal supporters, claimed that he had been instrumental in drafting a sweeping executive order signed by Mr. Trump on the first day of his second term that halted all permitting of wind projects in federal waters.

Mr. Van Drew said this week that he intended to continue to oppose offshore wind “in any way I can,” while he contemplates running again in 2028. “They’re very, very expensive” and “bad for the environment,” he said. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

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