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Trump Halts Five Wind Farms Off the East Coast – ‘A major victory for American energy as well as for the environment & fisheries’

CFACT President Craig Rucker: “Today was a historic victory for the little guy taking on the twin Goliaths of Big Government and Big Green Energy. The Trump Administration’s decision to deliver a lump of coal to five major offshore wind projects by placing a hold on their permits delivers a wonderful Christmas gift to those of us who’ve been fighting in the trenches for years to halt them.
We filed our lawsuit against Dominion Energy in March 2024 and experienced many ups and downs along the way. Fortunately, we were able to navigate through multiple venues, including some disappointing setbacks, to keep this effort alive to stymie the construction of multiple offshore wind projects up and down the East Coast — projects which Secretary Burgum rightly noted are ‘unreliable’ and ‘heavily subsidized.’ Our lawsuit has significant implications for wildlife, particularly whales. That said, we at CFACT have also publicly raised concerns surrounding “national security,” so needless to say, we’re overjoyed to see the Trump Administration press this matter.
This action is a major victory for American energy and the American process, as well as for the environment, fisheries, and CFACT and its allies, including the Heartland Institute and the National Legal Policy Center, who worked tirelessly to ensure this happened. Thank you, President Trump, for bringing a little Christmas cheer to American consumers and to those of us advocating for a sensible U.S. energy policy.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/climate/trump-offshore-wind-farms.html?searchResultPosition=1

The Interior Department said the projects posed national security risks, without providing details. The decision imperils billions of dollars of investments.
By Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman
NYT Excerpt: The Trump administration on Monday said it would pause leases for five wind farms under construction off the East Coast, essentially gutting the country’s nascent offshore wind industry in a sharp escalation of President Trump’s crusade against the renewable energy source.
The decision injected uncertainty into projects that were collectively expected to power more than 2.5 million homes and businesses across the Eastern United States.
It left intact just two operational wind farms in U.S. coastal waters — one small project off Rhode Island that has been complete since 2016 and a larger project off New York that has been fully operational since 2023.
The five wind farms targeted on Monday had all obtained leases from the Biden administration. But citing unspecified national security concerns, the Trump administration said it would freeze those leases, effectively blocking construction or operations and jeopardizing billions of dollars that have already been invested.
One of the projects, Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts, is already partially running, with about half of the project’s 62 turbines sending power to the electric grid.
But in announcing the pause, Doug Burgum, the secretary of the interior, said in a statement that “the prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people.” He said the decision “addresses emerging national security risks as well as “vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our East Coast population centers.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly called offshore wind turbines ugly, costly and inefficient. He has disparaged the clean energy source ever since he failed 14 years ago to stop an offshore wind farm visible from of one of his golf courses in Scotland.
In addition to Vineyard Wind 1, the other projects affected by the pause are Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind off New York, and Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The abrupt announcement left the wind farm builders sputtering.
…
Maxine Joselow covers climate change and the environment for The Times from Washington.
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.

Flashback: Could Trump Use National Security Measures to Block Offshore Wind Projects? – Enemy submarines and drones could exploit points of vulnerability, experts warn. Offshore wind projects could potentially enable foreign adversaries to hide submarines in U.S. territorial waters and penetrate U.S. air defenses, according to national security and energy policy analysts.

 

 

 

Flashback: March 27, 2024: Whale of a lawsuit threatens to swallow up Biden green energy agenda – The groups claim that the Virginia Offshore Wind project would threaten the North Atlantic right whale

Excerpt: A federal lawsuit pits green energy against saving endangered whales, as three conservative groups are suing the Biden administration to stop what they say would be the largest wind energy project in the world.

The Virginia Offshore Wind project could cause significant harm to the North Atlantic right whale, according to the 61-page complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia filed by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the Heartland Institute and the National Legal and Policy Center against federal agencies as well as Dominion Energy.

The lawsuit names the Interior Department, the Commerce Department, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Marine Fisheries Service, top officials at those agencies and the Virginia-based energy company Dominion, which plans to start construction of the project on May 1.

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