New York & New Jersey Energy Newsletter

On Saturday, opponents of the Williams pipeline project, including Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams alongside environmental advocates, march across the Brooklyn Bridge, 10 a.m., rally at Chambers and Center streets (north end of City Hall Park), and then march to Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn.

WIND WOES — POLITICO’s Kelsey Tamborrino: The Trump administration is escalating its onslaught of actions against U.S. offshore wind development — this time launching a full-scale review of its regulations to see if they mesh with President Donald Trump’s priorities and existing law.

The Interior Department said Thursday it was reviewing whether regulations governing offshore wind power align with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and Trump’s priorities. It will also consider updates to existing rules governing renewable energy facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf.

It is the latest effort by the department to target the U.S. wind industry, a persistent Trump target. In recent days, Interior has rescinded its five-year schedule for holding offshore wind lease sales and withdrawn all designated areas for wind development in federal offshore waters. The department has also paused new approvals for offshore wind projects, “including leases, permits, rights-of-way and loans,” it underscored Thursday in a press release.

— NYT: “Suddenly, the Trump Administration Tightens the Vise on Wind Farms.”

LIBERTY STATE PARK PLAN — The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday night released its decade-long master plan for the state’s most visited park, Liberty State Park. The plan has been years in the making and beset by drama.

“An admittedly rough-cut gem, park lovers have long called for a Liberty State Park fashioned to better serve the recreational needs of our diverse communities; polished to best reflect our region’s rich history and bright future,” DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette wrote in a foreword to the plan.

Cleanup of the park’s interior began two years ago.

The master plan calls for an interior trail network that include miles of new paths, a rehab of the historic train shed into 65,000 square feet of “flexible programming space,” a new community center, green space near the marina, an athletics hub, an outdoor performance lawn and amenities by the water, including a waterfront walk. — Ry Rivard

CLIMATE SCIENTIST FOR CONGRESS — POLITICO’s Matt Friedman: A climate scientist who until recently worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced her candidacy for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th District on Thursday, joining an extremely crowded field of Democrats hoping to take on Republican Rep. Tom Kean next year.

Megan O’Rourke, who grew up in Blairstown and lives in Byram, was national science liaison for climate change at the department until recently, when she found herself stripped of duties and opted for the deferred resignation program — the Trump administration program that allowed federal workers to resign while continuing to receive pay and benefits through September.

SOIL SCRAMBLE — Commercial real estate developers in New Jersey are scrambling to comply with new soil remediation and redevelopment standards the Department of Environmental Protection released on Monday. The new standards, meant to align with previously published groundwater quality standards, took effect immediately, with some exceptions. They are meant to protect water supplies by requiring soil to have fewer chemicals that leach into water. The chemicals include benzene, cyanide and vinyl chloride.

Emily Lamond, a lawyer at Cole Schotz who represents brownfield developers, said DEP was making “drastic, substantive” changes to the soil standard that skirted the administrative procedures process, will drive up costs and could disrupt active deals. Without redevelopment, sites could otherwise remain vacant and contaminated. “DEP is pulling the rug out from underneath developers and frustrating the well-established process in the commercial real estate industry that gets money to clean up contaminated properties that would otherwise be abandoned,” Lamond said.

DEP pointed to the language in its notice that said the soil standards are incorporated by reference in the ground water rule. “Accordingly, the Remediation Standards announced in the listserv were not subject to the formal [Administrative Procedures Act] process in accordance with the Remediation Standards,” the department said. — Ry Rivard

SOLAR TERMINATED — POLITICO’s Alex Guillén: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday announced he will terminate the agency’s $7 billion Solar for All program, calling it a “green slush fund” that has been repealed by Congress.

The Solar for All program is part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund included in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. But the fund was repealed by the GOP megalaw last month. Zeldin had previously terminated the other $20 billion in grants under the fund, a move that is still the subject of ongoing litigation.

“EPA no longer has the authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,” Zeldin said of the Solar for All program in a video posted on X. “With clear language and intent from Congress in the One Big Beautiful Bill, EPA is taking action to end this program for good.”

The termination marks the latest move by the Trump administration to derail wind and solar energy project development in the United States. The Interior Department has taken steps to stymie wind and solar projects on federal lands by imposing more red tape on each step of the process. The department is also focusing more on potential threats posed by wind turbines to protected eagles, and said it will cancel a major wind project in Idaho approved by the Biden administration.