The US Interior Department said today that it was halting five offshore wind energy projects, citing national security concerns. Photo / 123RF
The Interior Department said today that it was halting five offshore wind energy projects, citing national security concerns and continuing the Trump Administration’s year-long push to block even wind farms already under construction.
The department said in a statement that it was pausing the leases for the five projects, rather than using its past tactic of challenging permits for offshore wind.
US President Donald Trump on his first day in office issued an executive order to halt all new leasing for offshore wind and stop issuing permits for such projects, as the Interior Department leads a review of “alleged legal deficiencies”.
The Administration further targeted individual wind projects already fully permitted and in construction, although a judge dealt a blow to that strategy in September by lifting a stop-work order on Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island.
“Due to national security concerns identified by @DeptofWar, @Interior is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on X.
“ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED,” he added.
In a statement, the Department of the Interior listed the projects being paused: Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts; Revolution Wind off Rhode Island; Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind off New York; and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.
Companies have sunk billions of dollars into the five projects, which are already under construction.
At least one of the projects, Vineyard Wind, is already partially operating about half of the turbines in the planned 62-turbine project, with most of the rest already at least partially installed.
The Biden Administration had already fully permitted the five projects, which were initially thought to be safe from closing as Trump’s executive order appeared to pause only new permits.
However, the Administration went on to selectively block certain projects already in construction, including Revolution.
Burgum stopped work on Empire Wind for weeks under a vague stop-work order, before New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Democrat) struck a deal to lift it in exchange for reconsidering permitting for natural gas pipelines in the state.
Norwegian energy firm Equinor is evaluating the latest stop-work order on its Empire Wind project and seeking more information from the federal government, spokesperson David Schoetz said in a statement.
The announcement is also the first time the Administration has sought to block the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, owned by Dominion Energy.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger will take office as Virginia governor in January, replacing Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Dominion Energy defended its project as providing energy for military installations in Virginia and the race to develop artificial intelligence. It said the Interior Department’s order demanded work be suspended for 90 days.
“Stopping CVOW for any length of time will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation’s most important war fighting, AI, and civilian assets. It will also lead to energy inflation and threaten thousands of jobs,” the statement said.
The Interior Department’s statement cited “national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports”, while indicating that other unclassified reports found that turbine blades could interfere with radar.
The pause will give the Government time to work with offshore leaseholders and states to “assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects”.
Kirk Lippold, a retired US Navy officer who was in command of the USS Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000, questions the veracity of the national security concerns the Administration is citing.
“Each of these projects underwent vigorous national security vetting over several years,” Lippold said.
“In every case, it was found that the issues of concern had been addressed or could be mitigated through software or other upgrades in the turbine system or radar. The Department of Defence already vetted this.”
Lippold said the US would be ceding an advantage to China, the leader on wind and solar technology, by blocking clean energy development.
The National Ocean Industries Association, which represents businesses in the offshore energy industry supply chain, said the projects, in gaining past regulatory approval, had already gone through rigorous evaluations for national security, reviewed by the Defence Department.
“Offshore wind helps the US achieve its energy dominance goals,” the group’s president, Erik Milito, said in a statement.
Green groups also blasted the decision.
“For nearly a year, the Trump Administration has recklessly obstructed the build-out of clean, affordable power for millions of Americans, just as the country’s need for electricity is surging,” said Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel for US clean energy at the Environmental Defence Fund.
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