The federal government has ordered a fully-permitted offshore wind farm already under construction off of Long Island to halt operations in a move that could set a new precedent for projects not far from the Island’s coast, creating further uncertainty for the nascent industry.
On Wednesday, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted on X plans to order the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project until further review, suggesting that the the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January soon into his new term, that puts the damper on projects still undergoing federal permitting, but some experts believed that Trump wouldn’t touch projects already under construction. The rare move raises questions of whether other fully-permitted projects, like Vineyard Wind, are now also at risk.
Some local opponents are celebrating the decision.
“We are asking the opponents of environmentally destroying offshore wind turbines to call the White House, the EPA and Department of Interior to urge them to halt the construction of Revolution Wind, Vineyard Wind and Sunrise Wind until their permits can be reviewed,” said Tisbury resident John Zarba, a co-founder of PreserveMV, a Vineyard affiliate of Rhode Island-based anti-offshore wind organization Green Oceans. “There is no doubt in our minds that the government rushed those permits through and didn’t look at all of the relevant considerations when they signed off.”
Empire Wind was expected to power 500,000 homes in New York by 2027. Owned by Equinor, a Norwegian multinational energy company, construction began last year, which also included the ongoing revitalization of South Brooklyn Marine Terminal where the project’s operations and maintenance headquarters would be located. While turbines had not been placed in the water, Equinor senior communications manager David Schoetz said contractors had begun laying down rocks last week, which are meant to protect turbine foundations from erosion.
The company is exploring legal options to appeal the Trump administration’s order, according to an Equinor press release.
“We will engage directly with BOEM and the Department of Interior to understand the questions raised about the permits we have received from authorities,” a statement issued by Equinor last week reads. “We will not comment about the potential consequences until we know more.”
New York officials are also pushing back. Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she won’t “allow this federal overreach to stand.” “I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future,” the statement read.
Proponents of offshore wind are sounding alarms over the Interior Department’s Empire Wind decision.
“Stopping work on the fully federally permitted Empire Wind 1 offshore project should send chills across all industries investing in and holding contracts with the United States Government,” CEO and president of the Oceantic Network Liz Burdock said in a statement. The nonprofit works to grow the offshore wind industry. “Preventing a permitted and financed energy project from moving forward sends a loud and clear message to all businesses — beyond those in the offshore wind industry — that their investment in the U.S. is not safe.
“We urge the Department of [the] Interior to lift this order immediately to restore a predictable and equitable environment for the buildout of critical energy resources that help secure our energy future and independence,” the statement read.
Still, projects with turbine foundations already in the water may be safer than others, according to some wind advocates.
“Local projects like Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind are at substantially different stages than Empire Wind, making a stop-work order for these developments harder to imagine,” said Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. “While the actions of this administration have raised concerns and caused chaos, the distinct progress of these local developments adds complexity to any attempt to halt them.”
Among the various projects in different stages of permitting south of Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Wind is the farthest along in construction. According to a map shown in a weekly report email from the company on Wednesday, the project has completed 23 turbines in its lease area. Revolution Wind is located 12 miles off the coast of Aquinnah.
Representatives of Vineyard Wind and Avangrid, a Vineyard Wind parent company, did not respond to a request for comment.
Ørsted also owns fully permitted projects, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, off the Vineyard’s coast. Revolution Wind finished its first turbine in September and Sunrise Wind was cleared to start construction in June.
Meaghan Wims, Ørsted spokesperson, declined to comment.
Locally, opponents have argued that these projects had been rushed through without properly vetting the potential environmental ramifications and they are feeling encouraged by the administration’s decision against Empire Wind.”
Zarba viewed Burgum’s announcement as “positive steps” and said they were “excited for what it may mean for the wind farms off our shores.”
“Green Oceans is looking at the full array of legal options in the wake of our preliminary victory in our litigation against the federal government and Revolution Wind,” Zarba said.
Green Oceans’ lawsuit against Revolution Wind, another fully-permitted offshore wind project, alleging it was approved by the federal government without properly vetting the potential environmental impact was allowed to move forward by a federal judge earlier this month. Also this month, the organization petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the approval of Vineyard Wind.
President Donald Trump has expressed his desire to reverse course on renewable energy in favor of fossil fuels. He issued a January executive order that halted the approval of permits at new lease areas for offshore wind. The strike against Empire Wind is the most aggressive move his administration has taken since the Environmental Protection Agency’s revocation of Atlantic Shores South’s air pollution permit in New Jersey last month.
It is unfortunate that our president presses on to favor burning fossil fuels instead of wind power. What is taking place will have an impact for thousands of years. But as much as I do not agree with President Trump, he does have a point in this case.
The increase in CO2 from fossil fuels is disastrous. Offshore wind does contribute decisively to reducing pollution. It is a small contribution, and it takes a while to contribute to clean energy. It cannot possibly reverse or stop climate change. Also, unlike other technologies, offshore wind to be effective and has many drawbacks. It is a unique case.
I have written about our environment and have been a proponent of clean energy since 1952, when I wrote my first essay on it. Offshore wind has many impacts, and can not possibly solve all our energy requirements.
As a young boy, I wrote about our energy crisis, and at the time in 1952, it was only beginning. We need our youth to be active and to prepare. But offshore wind?
Yes. Offshore wind. “He does have a point in this case” – No, he doesn’t. The “point” is rapid environmental destruction.
Offshore wind projects have been halted. Government subsidies stopped. Many projects in the Northeast have been canceled, Beacon Wind in New York, Ocean Wind 1 and 2 in New Jersey, South Coast Wind and New England Wing 1 and 2. BP and Orsted are failing wind companies.
Wind projects on Federal land are stalled. Wind projects on private land are subject to many obstacles that will take from 5 to 10 years to overcome before they are financed and started.
The US demand for energy is increasing far beyond renewables ability to grow.
Coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear must be redeployed and developed to sustain our growth and protect our country.
Does that mean that developing renewables should be halted?
How long does it take for nuclear to be financed and started.
The only thing stalling wind projects on Federal land is the Federal government.
Coal, natural gas, oil, hydro, wind, solar and nuclear must be redeployed and developed to sustain our growth and protect our country.
I keep hearing about the tax dollars that have gone into VineyardWind.
I have have yet to see anyone post the check dates and amounts.
I do hear about the local and state tax avoidance for foreign car companies building manufacturing facilities in some of our economically depressed states.
Afe the GE foreign built wind turbines subject to Trump’s import taxes?….
Yes, the Vineyard Wind project is subsidized by the federal government through a combination of government incentives, tax equity investments, and debt financing. The project secured $2.3 billion in funding through these methods.
Offshore wind cannot exist without government subsidies or your tax dollars . This irrational business plan the wind farm developers survive on needs to be shut down for fleecing the tax payers.
Saving the marine life from the wind farms causing an environmental disaster is another subject that got pushed under the rug as well . It will be great day when the Trump administration shuts them all down . If the times took a poll today it would likely say 70% against Offshore wind and 30% for it .
In some of the states Trump won.
Texas is by far our largest wind producer.
Will shutting down wind make Texas great again?
Tim, it is unlikely that people polled would have the data available at their fingertips to make an informed decision. Just because people might have an opinion about something doesn’t mean they are correct.
Wind power is a great tool.
If we had solar on every roof, we wouldn’t need fossil fuels.
Every family could have solar panels and a few small wind turbines to produce their own.
No matter how many facts are presented, I’ve only seen one person flip from being a trump supporter to a trump opposer.
Could we have some artists make beautiful pictures of the wind turbines? Maybe we could accept them then.
An artist rendering will not make me like OSW turbines. I remain completely flummoxed as to why so many “environmentalists” turn a deaf ear — and a blind eye — to the harm that installation and maintenance of turbines do to ocean life depending on echolocation. Obviously there are many other activities contributing to this degradation, I’m just not sure we need to pretend that wind turbines are benign.
Definitely 70% against.
Please explain why the oil and gas industry receives much larger subsidies each year despite making windfall profits. This has been in place since the 1950’s to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars total.
Renewables are an emerging technology which do require government subsidies in order to level the playing field. The cost of producing energy through wind and solar has steadily dropped and become increasingly more efficient.
That should be considered good news in my humble opinion.
Well, ok– It’s hard to argue with the logic of the great leader– he has never been wrong about anything after all. Why would he be wrong about this ? So, let’s accept the reality of the situation , and build a coal plant or an oil fired plant on the island. We have a number of previous landfill sites that the silly environmentalist won’t allow us to build playgrounds or unaffordable housing on. So why not just get rid of those silly solar panels that aren’t doing anything and are probably going to catch fire or something that we have on top of them and build a few beautiful clean coal plants there ? We could seize Goodales pit by eminent domain and put all the slag in it. We would have total energy independence, no more whales would die from entanglements or boat strikes, no dolphins would be stranded in Wellfleet, our electricity would be really really cheap and the Vineyard would be great again !!!. As they say, “drill baby drill” or “burn baby burn”. Let’s give an American coal miner a job !!! I can’t imagine why anyone would object to such a rational solution to our energy needs.
The rational solution to our energy needs is to produce as much oil as we can, use it and ship it and drop prices as a result. The irrational solution is to make catastrophic predictions about climate change 50 years from now and tax the hell out of people in the meantime.
Its a Miracle. Three posters who defend the decision to shut down wind and no response as yet. Projects like this that are not economically defensible should be shut down.
It is simply amazing how offshore wind is working outside the USA.
Sadky Maura Healey rushed many OSW permits the final day that President Biden was in office. The Vineyard, Nantucket & off the coast of RI is still getting slammed with OSW🐟🐟🐟
The Massachusetts governor does not issue permits for projects in Federal waters. Many people who are funded by fossil fuels spread this type of misinformation.
I hope that you realize that the
‘no more whales would die from entanglements or boat strikes, no dolphins would be stranded’ is absurd. Have you NOT been paying attention to the items that have been causing deaths and or injuries to the living creatures in the ocean?
Wind turbines are a new addition.
Fishing lines, ropes, netting and discarded debris or trash WHICH ARE FROM HUMANS, lazy, disgusting, selfish
H U M A N S.
The massive collection of garbage floating in the ocean didn’t show up when the turbines arrived. It’s been collecting for years. It’s a garbage island. The only positive about it is that creatures in the ocean are using it as a place to live and as a stopover on their travels to and from someplace.
If you fished these waters in the past and saw the changes that have occurred in the last few years you would understand why these projects need to be stopped. They were rushed through and their environmental impacts just guessed at.
Go see them and cry! It looks like a futuristic nightmare.
Thank you Dan Feeney well said, it never should have happened and should be dismantled, so sad indeed.
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