President Donald Trump took significant action against offshore wind projects shortly after his inauguration. He signed an executive order that halts all new and renewed approvals, permits, leases, and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.
His sweeping order has a fairly lengthy title that hits all the key elements: “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.”
The executive order affects all offshore wind development in the U.S., as it takes place in the Outer Continental Shelf under federal control. The directive includes several key provisions:
Trump’s actions align with his campaign promises to end the offshore wind industry upon returning to the White House. In fact, readers of Legal Insurrection may recall my post on his interview with Joe Rogan, in which Trump said he wanted to be a whale psychiatrist.
“They say the wind drives them mad. It’s a vibration issue because those structures are as tall as 50-story buildings… The wind is howling, objects are moving, creating vibrations and noise. You know what I want to be? A whale psychiatrist.The noise drives the whales absolutely nuts. They are being washed up on the beaches, but oddly, the environmentalists remain silent on this.”
Trump’s concerns about the marine environment are also backed up by a report from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) that said whales, dolphins, birds, and more could be exposed to “unavoidable adverse impacts” by the construction of offshore wind farms. The BOEM was required to conduct an impact assessment for six wind farm sites that were previously approved off New Jersey/Long Island.
The whale deaths along the East Coast shores have been concerning. In 2024, at least eight whales have washed ashore in New York and New Jersey:
It’s worth noting that in previous years, there were significant numbers of whale strandings:
One aspect of this executive order that the elite media is bitterly complaining about is that Trump tasked New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew (Rep) and vocal critic of offshore wind, with writing the executive order.
Van Drew told The Associated Press Wednesday night that he quickly emailed a draft order to Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to be Interior secretary. Van Drew said the draft is written to halt offshore wind development from Rhode Island to Virginia for six months so the incoming Interior secretary could review how leases and permits were issued.Van Drew said he believes the approvals did not fully take into account the impact on the fishing industry, tourism, whales or Americans’ utility bills, and it’s problematic to rely on foreign renewable energy companies building the wind farms.
As a reminder, we covered the analysis of Dr. Wade Allison, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) researcher, who had a scathing review of the energy generation efficiency of wind power:
Allison delves into the mathematics of wind energy generation, so I will hit some of the highlights. A contrast with nuclear power, a potentially viable fossil fuel option, is made in one section. Allison also focuses on how relatively delicate the wind stations are in very windy conditions.If the wind speed is 10 metres per second (about 20 mph) the power is 600 watts per square metre at 100% efficiency. That means to deliver the same power as Hinkley Point C (3200 million watts) [nuclear power station in Somerset, England] by wind would require 5.5 million square metres of turbine swept area – that should be quite unacceptable to those who care about birds and to other environmentalists.
And let’s not forget the environmental emergency caused by a blade failure off the Nantucket coast that marred the summer beach season in the region.
It will be interesting to compare and contrast the Trump team’s analysis of offshore wind projects and their environmental impacts after the 6-month pause has concluded. I would also like to see what the marine mammal fatality data is after the pause as well.
The findings should be fascinating, especially as they will be devoid of climate-cult manipulations and green-energy activism.
It’s good to see Trump riding to rescue the East Coast whales.
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