The Revolution Wind project to bring electricity to Rhode Island and Connecticut is among the offshore wind farms that have received approval to resume construction despite opposition from the Trump administration. (Photo courtesy of Ørsted/Rhode Island Current)
Five East Coast offshore wind projects that recently won court victories against the Trump administration have resumed construction, but they represent only a diminutive fraction of Atlantic nations’ ambitious offshore wind plans. And dozens of projects that haven’t started construction yet have little chance of moving forward while Trump remains in office.
“If you were to make a best estimate of what’s going to happen, it would be that in the next three years, no other projects beyond these five will happen,” said Warren Leon, executive director of the Clean Energy States Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of state energy agencies.
National leaders are relying on these projects to support their transition to tidy electricity and meet growing energy needs, driven in huge part by data centers and artificial intelligence. But Trump’s hostility toward offshore wind energy showed the political sensitivity of an industry that operates in federal waters and depends on the government as its owner.
Trump has opposed offshore wind energy for years, falsely claiming it harms whales, is unreliable and increases energy costs. He appears to have adopted this stance after the construction of an offshore wind farm near his golf course in Scotland, considering the turbines unsightly.
If you were to make a best estimate of what will happen, it would be that no other projects beyond these five will be implemented in the next three years.
– Warren Leon, executive director of the Alliance of Clean Energy States
In trying to halt five projects on the East Coast, the Trump administration cited covert national security threats. But judges reviewed the classified materials and ruled that those concerns were not enough to stop work. They also noted the irreversible economic losses resulting from the delays and the likelihood that developers’ lawsuits would ultimately succeed.
Some analysts noted that Trump’s years-long anti-wind campaign could make it harder for federal lawyers to convince courts that the stop-work orders were not politically motivated.
When completed, the five projects will produce nearly 6 gigawatts of electricity for East Coast states, enough to power about 2.5 million homes. Supporters of offshore wind energy claim that these projects will significantly strengthen the region’s energy stability.
Projects are moving forward
In December, federal officials issued stop-work orders for five offshore wind projects currently under construction off the coast of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia. Developers and states sued to block the orders.
In a ruling issued earlier this month, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an injunction blocking a federal injunction on the Sunrise Wind project near New York. He cited four previous cases in which offshore wind developers prevailed against the feds.
“Every court that has considered this issue has now found that the loss of specialized vessels and the resulting delays constitute irreparable harm,” said Lamberth of the bench, according to East End Lighthouse. “I agree.”
The Empire Wind project off the coast of New York is expected to provide enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.
“We absolutely need this energy, and we need it yesterday,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Democrat. “The fact that we are now back on track and expect the energy to start flowing by the end of this year is extremely exciting and extremely beneficial.”
Sam Salustro, senior vice president of policy and market affairs at Oceantic Network, an industry lobbying group for offshore wind, noted that many states have seen a surge in electricity demand in recent years, further increasing the urgency to complete projects.
“These projects are very close to completion and transfer of electricity to the grid,” he said. “Every time we spin up another turbine, it becomes harder and harder to justify stopping the industry from moving forward.”
Some Republicans have joined Trump in challenging offshore wind and tidy energy. But last month, nine House Republicans wrote a letter to federal officials questioning Trump’s efforts to halt construction of these projects.
“American energy policy should be based on facts, fiscal responsibility and the national interest, not ideology or politics,” the lawmakers wrote, according to E&E News.
Although developers are resuming work, some observers noted that the rulings covered the construction phase of projects, not their operation. Some expect Trump to take on a novel challenge once the turbines actually start turning.
“This administration has vigorously and frequently opposed offshore wind energy and has taken a retaliatory stance when it loses in court,” said Timothy Fox, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners LLC, an independent research firm. “We have seen the administration try again to stop these projects.”
Supporters note that the projects have already undergone extensive, years-long reviews in consultation with federal agencies that have found no national security concerns.
Officials with the federal Office of Ocean Energy Management declined a request to interview Stateline, citing ongoing legal proceedings.
Bigger plans have stalled
On the East Coast, eight states have pledged to build more than 45 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2040, enough to power more than 30 million homes. These countries have also made significant investments in modernizing their ports to handle specialized ships and giant turbines, building production plants, expanding transmission infrastructure and training the offshore wind workforce.
While no state has yet abandoned its offshore wind commitments, even industry supporters say their timelines will be nearly impossible to achieve after Trump’s attacks on the industry.
“You’re going to have to change the timeline,” said New Jersey Sen. Bob Smith, Democratic chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee. “I don’t think there’s any way to avoid it.”
Since taking office, Trump has halted permits and leases for other planned offshore wind projects, canceled $679 million in funding to support manufacturing and ports, ended tidy energy tax credits and announced plans to rescind approval of an offshore wind project in Maryland.
Del. Lorig Charkoudian, a Maryland Democrat who is a major supporter of offshore wind, said the state’s pledge to produce 8.5 gigawatts of wind energy by 2035 is “likely not to be met.”
The Trump administration said it would revoke permits for a pending project in federal waters off Maryland, but Charkoudian expressed hope it could survive the legal challenges and proceed with construction. But in two other leasing areas that Maryland was counting on to meet its goal, developers were hampered by Trump’s hold on issuing novel permits.
Member States remain committed
Despite the setbacks, state lawmakers say they still believe in the long-term future of offshore wind.
Smith, the New Jersey legislator, said it was a matter of basic economics. He pointed to the country’s rapidly growing energy demand and the huge amounts of energy that offshore wind energy can provide.
“The more wind farms are built and the more electricity they provide for America, the more they prove the value of this concept,” he said. “I bet in two years and 11 months [when Trump is out of office] “We will have a very robust wind program in the US.”
Smith is pushing for improvements to the state’s transmission infrastructure so that novel projects can be added quickly in the future.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Jamie Eldridge said he also believes offshore wind could outlive Trump.
“Massachusett is facing high utility bills, power outages and rolling blackouts as energy use increases,” he said. “Offshore wind is a very reliable source of energy, and projects coming online will provide this power at a time when demand for grid power is significant.”
In Maryland, state leaders are focusing on building more battery storage facilities in anticipation of the wind’s arrival.
“I don’t want to downplay the damage this administration has done, but we are resilient,” Charkoudian said. “We will definitely be a few years behind, but we have a path forward.”
But some analysts say Trump has exposed the political sensitivity of offshore wind, which could make developers and investors cautious even if a novel administration takes office. Fox, with an energy research firm, said the best-case scenario for offshore wind might be for a more customary Republican to win the presidency.
“A Democratic administration could come right back, but if there were a shift within the Republican Party toward a more traditional energy ethos that favored states’ rights, that could provide the four-plus years of stability that may be necessary to rebuild this industry,” he said.
Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at: abrown@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by state linewhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
