Lawmakers in the state of New Jersey on Monday approved a new law that allows Ørsted to keep all federal tax credits received by its Ocean Wind offshore wind project, reports Recharge News.

The bill only needs Governor Phil Murphy’s signature to become law, but he is considered to be positive towards renewable energy development in the state.

However, the new bill is heavily critiqued by one of the minority state senators, Republican Edward Durr, who believes that a USD 1bn taxpayer gift will now end up with a ”foreign” corporation.

”As part of the approval process, Ørsted agreed to apply for and return any federal tax credits that may be available to electricity customers to offset the higher costs that electricity customers are paying today for wind energy development,” said Durr.

”Despite the contract they signed, Ørsted realizes that wind projects don’t make economic sense without large government subsidies, so now they’re looking for a big giveaway at the expense of utility customers.”

Ocean Wind is a 1.1GW capacity project and like other projects, it has been financially impacted by increased costs due to high inflation.