Could NJ’s 1st wind projects be salvaged? It’s not up to Gov. Murphy.

When the world’s largest wind developer backed out of two projects it planned off the New Jersey shore, it dealt a potentially catastrophic blow to Gov. Phil Murphy’s ambitious plans for all-clean energy sales by 2035.

There’s only one other wind project yet approved in New Jersey, and it’s years behind the “Ocean Wind 1” and “Ocean Wind 2” projects that Danish developer Orsted scrapped in late October, citing economic pressures. But there’s one way New Jersey could potentially salvage the projects: if Orsted sold its rights to develop them to another company.

So far, the wind company isn’t saying whether it plans to do so. And Murphy’s office declined to comment on any prospects for getting Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 back on track. But state Sen. Bob Smith, a Democrat from Piscataway who has been leading the charge on wind power, thinks a sale of the projects is likely.

“One thing clearly motivates them, and that’s capitalism,” he said. “To sit on the leases is to get no return on them.”

Ultimately, the decision whether to sell the project rights sits entirely with Orsted, not the Murphy administration or Legislature. The company has contracted directly with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to lease areas off the Jersey coast and build wind farms there, and state officials say they have no authority to intervene in that contract.

Stephanie Francoeur, a company spokesperson, said the company “retains sole ownership of the lease areas” and “will consider value-creating options as part of its ongoing portfolio review,” but wouldn’t say what those “value-creating options” might include.

Orsted’s projects would have produced about 2,300 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power roughly 1 million homes. How the Murphy administration responds to the collapse of those projects will determine whether the state can successfully achieve its ambitious clean-energy goals.

Late last month, the Murphy administration…