Trump halts wind farm off Vineyard coast

Updated Aug. 27

The Trump administration dealt another significant blow to the offshore wind industry late last week, this time very close to Vineyard shores. 

The administration issued a stop-work order Friday afternoon to Revolution Wind, bringing to a halt the nearly completed wind project 12 miles southwest of Aquinnah.

The order raises concerns for other fully permitted projects like Vineyard Wind 1, with some questioning if the other wind farm could be next, as well as about the future of New England’s grid reliability and the potential for increased electricity prices. The order also delays the activation of a system to reduce the controversial red lights that blink atop Revolution Wind turbines, which is expected to go into effect when construction finishes.

Also in recent days, Nantucket officials say there has been headway in their attempt to hold an offshore wind company accountable. Vineyard Wind and Nantucket sat down to discuss a list of demands the town made earlier this summer, and the company reportedly started to make some concessions, including improved communication with the town. 

On the heels of Nantucket, though the outcry for accountability hasn’t been as apparent on the Vineyard, the Edgartown Select Board held an executive session Monday (not open to the public) to “discuss strategy with respect to litigation” on matters that included Vineyard Wind. There were no announcements made by the select board about the offshore wind company immediately afterward, and town officials wouldn’t comment about what was discussed.

Regardless, the industry is reeling again from Trump’s decision last week. Revolution Wind, which holds power purchase agreements to deliver 704 megawatts at full capacity to Rhode Island and Connecticut, is developed by Ørsted, a global renewable energy company based in Denmark, and the U.S.-based investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables. National news outlets reported that shares in Ørsted dropped 17 percent Monday after Trump’s order.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has instructed the project to stop all activities on the farm. It was delivered by Matthew Giacona, acting director for BOEM, to Rob Keiser, head of asset management at Ørsted’s North America division, and reads that the department needs time to “address concerns that have arisen during the review that the Department is undertaking pursuant to the President’s Memorandum of Jan. 20, 2025.”

The Aug. 22 letter specified that those concerns include “protection of national security interests of the U.S. and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas.”

The order has since incited backlash from top Rhode Island and Connecticut officials. Both states are looking to increase their reliance on alternative energy rather than fossil fuels. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, both Democrats, said they’d pursue every avenue to reverse the decision. McKee wrote in a post on X that the stop-work order “undermines efforts to expand our energy supply, lower costs for families and businesses, and strengthen regional reliability.”

The project, which received final federal approval last year and holds all state approval permits, finished the first turbine almost a year ago on Sept. 6, and has since made progress.

“The project is 80 percent complete, with all offshore foundations installed, and 45 out of 65 wind turbines installed,” a press release from Ørsted said Friday. The stop-work order only applies to activities offshore on the outer continental shelf, and doesn’t include responses to emergency situations or impacts to health, safety, and the environment.

The company in the press release said it is “complying with the order” and “taking appropriate steps to stop offshore activities, ensuring the safety of workers and the environment.” They’re also “evaluating the potential financial implications” of the stop-work order, and are “considering a range of scenarios, including legal proceedings.” 

Activities can’t resume until the bureau completes the review, though the letter says that the developer may appeal the order within 60 days of receipt.

The project is especially visible up-Island, where there have been complaints of constant red lights from the turbines. The developers plan to activate the aircraft detection lighting system, or ADLS — which turns the lights on only when a plane is in the wind farm’s vicinity, to reduce visual impacts — “once construction is complete and Revolution Wind goes into the operational phase,” Meaghan Wims, a spokesperson for the company, told The Times.

The project was previously on track to complete in 2026. Ørsted said Friday that it hopes to continue construction, and work toward a commercial operation date in the second half of next year.

While those in opposition to offshore wind farms, including some fishermen, welcome the stop-work order, others are worried about the impact to the grid.

ISO New England, a nonprofit corporation that manages the grid for the six New England states, said the expectation was that the project would help meet New England’s demand for electricity beginning in 2026: “The ISO is expecting this project to come online, and it is included in our analyses of near-term and future grid reliability. Delaying the project will increase risks to reliability.”

The nonprofit cited recent heatwaves, future winter peak periods, and potential future data centers as drivers of electricity demand, and said the region needs as many generation resources as possible. “Unpredictable risks and threats to resources — regardless of technology — that have made significant capital investments, secured necessary permits, and are close to completion will stifle future investments, increase costs to consumers, and undermine the power grid’s reliability and the region’s economy now and in the future,” the nonprofit wrote.

Amanda Barker, clean energy program coordinator for the nonprofit Green Energy Consumers Alliance, said she thinks the goal of the Trump administration is to intimidate alternative energy developers and investors. Barker also said that Ørsted, Rhode Island, and Connecticut need to challenge the order in court, especially the “national security rationale,” which she called an excuse to continue reliance on fossil fuels. Green Energy Consumers Alliance advocates for and works to “speed a just transition to a zero-carbon world,” as per their website.

The project’s already been greenlighted by the military, Barker said. BOEM coordinated with the Department of Defense (DOD) to “develop measures necessary to safeguard against potential liabilities and impacts on DOD activities,” according to the project’s record of decision. The real national security concern, Barker said, is overreliance on foreign fossil fuels that leave us “vulnerable to being impacted by geopolitical events.”

“This does not send a good signal for developers, and for capital investment in offshore wind projects –– to think that a project has gotten all of its permits and invested billions of dollars, and the plug can just be pulled, is a big red light for development,” Barker said.

Concern for other developments

There is a fear for all projects on the table, given that Revolution Wind was so far along in construction, Barker said: “I can’t predict the future, but if I were Vineyard Wind, I would be concerned.”

Barker believes that offshore wind will ultimately be the region’s leading electricity source, even if that’s five years from now, but said states need to push for action, not being deterred by the federal government, such as building performance standards and electric vehicle incentives, amid a legal battle for offshore wind.

But Trump’s order is slamming an already turbulent industry. Even before its stocks took a nosedive this week, Ørsted recently made headlines after announcing earlier this month a $9.4 billion rights issue, an opportunity for existing stakeholders to buy additional shares at a discounted price, amid “material adverse development” in the U.S. market. The company confirmed Monday that is still the plan.

This isn’t the first stop-work order delivered by the Trump administration, nor even the latest. Earlier this week, national outlets reported that the administration plans to derail a third wind farm, U.S. Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which was approved by BOEM in December last year. 

And Empire Wind 1, a 15-turbine offshore wind project by Norwegian energy firm Equinor, off New York, was suspended in April. The order was lifted about a month later, “following dialogue with regulators and federal, state, and city officials,” a press release said.

“The difference between Equinor and Empire Wind and Ørsted and Revolution Wind is that Equinor is also an oil and gas company in the U.S., and had some leverage there, whereas Ørsted does not,” Barker said. Equinor is an energy company based in Norway, but also self-describes as the largest equity producer of oil and natural gas in the U.S.

In further action under the Trump administration against the industry, BOEM also de-designated more than 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic at the end of July.

Vineyard Wind and Nantucket in negotiations

Though Vineyard Wind didn’t respond for comment on concerns after the Revolution Wind stop-work order, the company seems to be making concessions to Nantucket after the town issued a list of 15 demands to the offshore wind company earlier this summer; among Vineyard Wind’s actions is a promise to improve communications with the town.

A much discussed and delayed conversation between the town of Nantucket and Vineyard Wind took place last Thursday, August 21, and the parties “reached preliminary consensus” in three areas that culminated in the demands, a press release from the town said Friday afternoon.

The consensus reached with Nantucket, though not yet official, is that Vineyard Wind will improve communications with the town and public “through a series of protocols that require regular, detailed reports, timely responses to questions, sharing of regulatory documents, and prompt emergency notifications, among other obligations.” Also under the possible agreement, Nantucket would play a direct role in planning the developer’s updated emergency response plans, and Vineyard Wind will provide detailed data on ADLS performance — a hot topic on the Vineyard as well, where a system turns blinking red lights on only when planes fly overhead.

Earlier this month, Vineyard Wind, days after hearing from the Nantucket Select Board, announced it had integrated all existing offshore wind turbines (one-third of the 62 turbines were said to be installed as of the end of July) with ADLS. Part of the town’s demands was that for every day the system isn’t active, the company should pay them $25,000 per turbine. 

Nantucket officials made the demands on the basis that the offshore wind company failed to meet expectations set forth in a community benefits agreement, also known as the Good Neighbor Agreement, signed in 2020. The community benefits agreement established for the Vineyard was only recently released, about a decade after its formation, and is structurally similar, but doesn’t hold Vineyard Wind to all the same commitments as Nantucket’s agreement.

Nantucket and Vineyard Wind plan to reconvene on Sept. 12 to continue negotiations and lay out enforcement mechanisms for any commitments.

Meanwhile, Gov. Maura Healey told the Nantucket Current last Tuesday that she supports the town, and had asked Vineyard Wind to respond. “I stand with the town, and I’ve already reached out to Vineyard Wind, including just a day ago, to reiterate my request to them to work with the town to meet the town’s needs, especially around emergency response, communication, transparency, all of that,” Healey said. 

Healey said her administration’s worked on this issue with Nantucket for more than a year, and said she’ll be available to discuss “real partnership with the town from Vineyard Wind.”