{"id":129669,"date":"2025-09-29T12:18:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/?p=129669"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:16:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:16:26","slug":"feds-respond-to-save-lbi-lawsuit-with-motion-to-reconsider-approvals-for-massive-atlantic-shores-wind-farm-off-the-coast-of-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/feds-respond-to-save-lbi-lawsuit-with-motion-to-reconsider-approvals-for-massive-atlantic-shores-wind-farm-off-the-coast-of-new-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds Respond to Save LBI Lawsuit with Motion to Reconsider Approvals for Massive Atlantic Shores Wind Farm Off the Coast of New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 29, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — In a major development for offshore wind oversight and marine environmental protection, the federal government has filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to remand the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Construction and Operations Plan (COP) and Record of Decision (ROD) approvals for the controversial Atlantic Shores South offshore wind project, planned only 8.7 miles east of New Jersey\u2019s coast. The filing comes in direct response to a federal lawsuit brought by Save Long Beach Island, Inc. (Save LBI) and a coalition of individuals, businesses, and nonprofit plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

\"Visual
Image caption: Visual simulation of what the Atlantic Shores South project would look from Holgate on Long Beach Island, NJ. Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).<\/em><\/p>\n

The lawsuit \u2014 filed on July 11, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia \u2014 challenges the legality of federal approvals granted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under laws including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Outer-Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), and the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis filing means federal agencies are going back to the drawing board,\u201d said Bob Stern, Ph.D. scientist and president of Save LBI. \u201cIt\u2019s a rare and important moment. It confirms the seriousness of the technical and scientific concerns we\u2019ve raised, for many years now \u2014 especially regarding the impacts to endangered North Atlantic right whales and cumulative construction and operation harms to the North Atlantic right whale migration corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a significant admission by the federal agencies that the Atlantic Shores approvals cannot withstand legal scrutiny in their current form,\u201d said Thomas Stavola Jr. Esq., attorney for Save LBI. \u201cThe agencies have now recognized that their environmental review process was flawed and must be revisited. This constitutes a vindication of Plaintiffs\u2019 rights and an acknowledgement of the validity of Plaintiffs\u2019 lawsuit claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s motion requests that the Court remand the COP for Atlantic Shores South so the agencies can reassess the project under governing environmental statutes. That remand effectively dismisses the prior permit approvals granted under those statutes and will likely result in substantial revisions, additional environmental analysis, or a full cancellation of Atlantic Shores\u2019 approval.<\/p>\n

The Save LBI and allies\u2019 lawsuit was the first to mount a comprehensive, multi-statute challenge to the Atlantic Shores project, citing data deficiencies, injurious impacts to marine mammals, tourism, economy, and electric rates and failures to assess cumulative impacts across the broader offshore wind buildout.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s motion to remand marks a major inflection point in offshore wind permitting.<\/p>\n

The Court will now review the government\u2019s motion and determine whether to grant the remand. While Atlantic Shores currently has most of its federal approvals for the Atlantic Shores South project, earlier this year, Save LBI was responsible for compelling the remand of Atlantic Shores\u2019 Clean Air Act permit to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That permit remains with the EPA.<\/p>\n

Save LBI will continue advocating for a full rescission of unlawful approvals, protection of the right whale\u2019s migration, and an overhaul of BOEM and NMFS\u2019s offshore wind permitting practices.<\/p>\n

About Save LBI <\/strong><\/p>\n

Save LBI is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization that has been active in ongoing litigation and other efforts to protect the coastal and marine environment from the senseless industrialization of our oceans. The organization is led by Beach Haven, N.J. resident Bob Stern, a Ph.D. scientist with experience in environmental planning and environmental law. He is a former manager of the U.S. Department of Energy office responsible for overseeing environmental reviews related to energy projects and the Bureau of Air Quality Planning within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). For more information on Save LBI and its efforts, please visit SaveLBI.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contact: https:\/\/www.savelbi.org\/contact<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information click here: https:\/\/www.savelbi.org<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE LINKS FOR MEDIA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGE 1:\u00a0https:\/\/www.Send2Press.com\/300dpi\/25-0805-s2p-slbi-fisheries-300dpi.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE CAPTION 1: Atlantic Shores South (blue\/orange) and North (outline) lease areas off the coast of Atlantic City and Long Beach Island, NJ. Source: NOAA Fisheries.<\/p>\n

IMAGE 2:\u00a0https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/300dpi\/25-0722-s2p-savelbiboem-300dpi.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE CAPTION 2: Visual simulation of what the Atlantic Shores South project would look from Holgate on Long Beach Island, NJ. Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 29, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — In a major development for offshore wind oversight and marine environmental protection, the federal government has filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to remand the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Construction and Operations Plan (COP) and Record of Decision (ROD) approvals for the controversial Atlantic Shores South offshore wind project, planned only 8.7 miles east of New Jersey’s coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9891,"featured_media":123304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12804,167,365,173],"tags":[20181],"class_list":["post-129669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-and-law-news","category-ap","category-energy-news","category-environmental-news","category-new-jersey-news","tag-offshore-wind-development","has-post-title","has-post-date","no-post-category","no-post-tag","no-post-comment","has-post-author"],"acf":[],"views":3387,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129677,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129669\/revisions\/129677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}