the blowback continues following the decision by Danish based orad to walk away from both of its massive offshore wind projects slated to be built off New Jersey's Coastline and providing clean energy within just a couple of years the wind farm developers cited Rising costs and a tough economy as the main reasons for pulling the plug Republican lawmakers are now calling for hearings into orad's decision and whether the governor's office was aiming to keep the news quiet until after election day a claim the Murphy Administration denies and while many insiders say the decision won't put a stop to New Jersey's emerging offshore wind industry it's still unclear exactly what happens next senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports ultimately it is a gut punch right Doug Ali says orad's sudden decision to deep six its two Wind Farm projects off the South Jersey coast creates Double Trouble economic and environmental key players already knew the industry faced headwinds like spiraling steel costs supply chain issues and high interest rates some other states had already renegotiated imperiled Wind Farm contracts I think there was an expectation for pause a delay a restructuring um a reevaluation but that being said this was not the only project that was planned off The Jersey Shore but it would have been the first to fire up by 2026 with enough juice to power a million homes instead oread pull the plug and took a $5.6 billion loss what's next industry analyst Chris olith insists offshore winds still got a strong future in New Jersey I think for me the message has been Keep Calm and Carry On Olas says developer Atlantic Shores remains committed to its current project located 10 to 20 miles off the Jersey coastline and New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities just received four more bids for additional projects including attentive energy 2 that company stated it aims to strengthen and expand upon New Jersey's foundational offshore wind Investments while creating new Pathways for a local Workforce and supply chain New Jersey is already moving swiftly forward with their solicitations four projects are in consideration right now and we would expect a decision on that early next year but I can't imagine we don't see higher prices in the short term watch doog Brian lipman's raised red flags about how much offshore wind will cost rate payers all along he warns orad's pull out blew a 2200 megawatt hole in New Jersey's energy master plan objective to develop 7500 megawatts by 2030 now we're catching up and the catchup megawatts are going to be expensive and you know I think right now I'm hopeful that we're at the height of the market and that prices will begin to drop somewhat soon to fight climate change President Biden's targeted 30x30 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 projects dot the East Coast the largest off Virginia just got Federal approval and jerseys got serious skin in the wind turban game with a new windport and monopile construction facility in south Jersey unfortunately orad's decision just iced a couple hundred union jobs there at at least for now again it's it's it's South Jersey salm County being sold a bag of goods assembly woman bethanne McCarthy Patrick's definitely not a fan of wind farms she backed to moratorium but she welcomed the work opportunities to build and ship hundreds of Steel monopiles jobs is a thing we need we need jobs and for I don't know just for them to just H it just makes me so angry now what orad could sell it's to offshore leases and all the prep work but it won't collect the billion dollars worth of tax incentives that Governor Murphy approved the state also intends to Wrangle back another 300 million in outstanding escros and performance fees it's a clear stepback for New Jersey's clean energy goals is to set back more broadly um for the industry um you know that doesn't mean that we can't meet our goals but expect some delays I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News