yeah as we mentioned offshore wind has faced a number of setbacks here the latest from the company attentive energy which had preliminary approval for a wind farm off the shore of Seaside Heights that would be able to power up to 650,000 homes but late last week attentive asked the State Board of Public Utilities for a one-year extension in making more than $37 Million worth of payments that's all required as part of the approval for the project it comes as other offshore wind plants have either died or hit delays when just a year ago New Jersey was looking to become the east coast capital of the industry for more I'm joined by Wayne Parry reporter for the Press of Atlantic City Wayne thanks for coming on the show so as it relates to attentive what reasons do we know or did they give for needing more time to make these payments well as you know it's been a tough year year and a half for the entire offshore wind industry I mean this this industry as a whole is is on its back foot right now um it's in a position that it really didn't expect to be in less than two years ago um attentive was saying that they're still running into um supply chain issues um but also um exterior um issues affecting offshore wind as a whole and that obviously relates to financial pressures on the industry and uh the elephant in the room which was the executive order president Trump signed on his very first day back in office to Halt all new wind programs both onshore and offshore and directing the government to look for ways to cancel existing programs well and I mean you talked to these folks who who operate um within the industry was that really the death now as they see it the go the president rather's executive order well certainly opponents of offshore wind think that this is the death Nowell I mean they they've held several rhetorical funerals for this industry already um that look there's there's no denying that this industry is facing some some real challenges just as recently as last month the federal government revoked a key environmental permit that Atlantic Shores was given just last Fall by the Biden Administration and Atlantic was farthest along of all the New Jersey projects um now they do not have everything that they need to operate and Atlantic Shores is still reeling from the departure of its joint venture partner shell um after shell exited the the project in January the lone remaining company in Atlantic Shores uh EDF they took nearly a billion dollar write off on the project I mean that that's that's how serious this is getting so now with this delay for attentive are there any other projects that were moving along um that are left in New Jersey I mean is there anything left for this industry now well I mean there's the three that that had preliminary approval Atlantic Shores was the farthest along and you know they're in what can only be described as an existential crisis right now we're waiting to see if the company really is going to stick with its its uh pledge to to continue and and see this project through to fruition um attentive is looking for a oneyear delay in um making $ 37.3 million in uh payments that it's required to make uh under its uh approval from the state and Leading Light um is also asking for a second delay in uh its project because it's having a a very hard time finding someone to manufact its turbine blades so I mean that's where the industry is right now when you think about this just two years ago New Jersey was poised to be the East Coast epicenter of offshore wind they really wanted to be the the capital on the east coast of what at the time was a rapidly growing and promising industry and boy has that gone sideways in two years you could say that again very quickly has the BPU Setter do you have any sense of what it might do I mean we just came off of this contentious hearing on Friday 6 hours long over the the the spike in Energy prices for consumers what's their next move well they were they were going to um uh Vote or at least consider uh attentive delay request at their last meeting that got removed from the agenda at the last minute I asked uh when this is going to be considered in the future and they said that they just don't know Wayne Perry with the Press of AC thanks so much for your time thank you [Music]