Trump Admin Pulls the Plug on Construction of New York’s Offshore Wind Projects
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum: “Further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that on the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) that imposed a sweeping halt on the development of offshore wind energy projects in the United States.
The EO immediately paused all new and renewed federal leasing, permitting, and approvals for offshore wind projects on the Outer Continental Shelf and directed a comprehensive review of the federal government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects.
However, one Norwegian company decided to sail past that EO and continue construction on Empire Wind 1, a major offshore wind energy project being developed off the coast of New York, approximately 15–30 miles southeast of Long Island.
Norway-based Equinor, which already had all the necessary lease and permit approvals from the feds before Trump’s January 20 executive order went into effect, confirmed that it has started construction at the site — laying rock as the foundation for the giant 54 wind turbines — 15 miles off the coast of Long Beach.
Equinor will deliver the power by connecting to Con Edison’s electric grid via a cable link from the ocean floor to the substation at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park.
The “Empire Wind 1″ project — which will power 500,000 homes — has the strong backing from both Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, in part to help meet the goals of the ambitious state climate change law mandating 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040 and the phasing out of fossil fuels by 2050.
Perhaps Equinor thought the Trump administration would fail to notice their work? Maybe the firm thought they could ignore the EO and carry on with their green energy schemes?
Clearly the company hasn’t been paying attention that we are now in the Trump 2.0 era. The Trump administration has now ordered an immediate halt to the construction of the Empire Wind offshore wind project. This decision, announced by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, suspends all construction activities on the project.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Burgum said the halt would allow for “further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
…The order came two weeks after Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, asked Mr. Burgum in a letter to “do everything in your power” to stop what he called an “underhanded rush” to build the wind farm. Another Republican representative from New Jersey, Jeff Van Drew, has pressed Mr. Trump to put a stop to other wind farms that were planned in the Atlantic Ocean to provide renewable power to New Jersey.
Mr. Trump’s stated opposition to windmills as a source of renewable energy has been seen as a serious threat by the offshore wind industry, which already was struggling to cope with global inflation and supply chain problems. Some projects that had been proposed off the East Coast have been canceled and others have lost financial backing from their sponsors.
Among the criticisms of offshore wind farms are that they are unsightly and that they harm marine mammals and the commercial fishing industry. The offshore wind industry and its supporters dispute those contentions and have pledged to take measures to ensure that whales and other mammals and fish are not endangered by their projects.
Representative Smith was one of the Republican members in the House of Representatives from the Northeast who called for a halt to offshore wind projects until their full environmental and economic impacts are assessed. Their 2023 request came in the wake of numerous dead whales washing up along the New York and New Jersey shores.
This halt is a YUGE win for the fishing industry, wildlife advocates, and local grassroots organizations that have strongly opposed offshore wind projects. Opponents contend that turning American oceans into industrial zones will severely impact marine industries, threaten wildlife such as whales, hinder military activities, and spoil scenic coastal views that are vital for tourism income in seaside communities.
“It’s the industrialization of our ocean, rubber-stamped by federal agencies and delivered by a foreign-owned corporation under the guise of climate action,” wrote Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “It is corporate welfare disguised as environmentalism, and the costs are far too high.”
Brady noted that construction of the project includes dumping 3.2 billion pounds of rock into the ocean and pile-driving massive 180-foot monopoles into the seafloor, both of which she said will destroy marine habitat and threaten the fishing industry. She also said the construction will cause underwater noise and vibration that could fatally injure endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale.
And while green schemers may be unhappy, many East Coast Americans are joyfully greeting this news.
Thank you, Mr President and Congressman!
Congressman Van Drew Works with Presidential Cabinet to Halt Empire Wind Project Over Faulty Permits
Congressman Van Drew Works with Presidential Cabinet to Halt Empire Wind Project Over Faulty Permits
This federal order paves the way… pic.twitter.com/maCzrE8d2p— Protect Our Coast NJ (@njcoast_protect) April 16, 2025
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Comments
I would have cancelled green energy projects in red/purple states and double down in blue. Those idiots want green energy? Give them what they want until they realize the error of the ways.
Oh NY MA CA Illinois Wa Oregon VT Conn get special special attention.
Hey, don’t include VT in this. We have fought windmills on our ridgelines to a standstill in multiple places. They look like crap and none can replace the output of VT Yankee.
*cough* Sanders green new deal *cough*
Wind turbines are vanity projects for virtue signaling, that must be propped up with taxpayer subsidies, and destroy habitat.
Watch for some DemoncRat judge slap a TRO on Mr. Burgum’s order.
That’s an SPJ (Schumer Progressive Judge)…
What damage have they done since January I wonder?
Go ahead and waste your hard earned dollars on coal and gas electric generators. I live in Iowa. Iowa leads the nation in wind energy generation, producing the highest percentage of its electricity from wind power. In 2023, Wind energy generated 59% of Iowa’s total electricity. I live in a two story house. I just paid my monthly electric bill. It was $60 dollars. That included everything. Heat, air conditioning, hot water heater, electric washer and dryer, refrigerator and freezer, Everything. Go cry me a river, as you wasted your hard earned money.
And when the wind stops blowing, no one here will care when you freeze to death.
That’s why he posts… to keep some wind blowing.
LOL. A state of 3 million, with the biggest city 200,00o people. And with pretty reliably high winds.
Yeah, that’s totally going to work in New York, a state with a slightly SMALLER area and more than 6x the population. Wind and solar CANNOT be scaled up because they require huge amounts of open land and favorable weather conditions.
Idiots don’t understand that what works in lower population density areas and certain climates WILL NOT WORK universally.
And if they were so fantastic and good they would already be being built, instead of requiring massive government subsidies to exist at all.
And oh by the way, it takes more resources and energy to produce a wind turbine than it can generate in its entire lifetime.
Via perplexity.ai “cost of electricity in Iowa”
Residential rates in Iowa range from 5.98¢/kWh to 24.57¢/kWh depending on the utility and location.
Major providers and their average rates:
MidAmerican Energy: 10.98¢/kWh
Alliant Energy: 17.85¢/kWh
Cedar Falls Electric Utility: 10.39¢/kWh
Ames Utilities: 12.65¢/kWh
My current rate in FL: 12.7¢/kWh
With a windbag like you living there of course wind generation is a bit more viable then elsewhere. Keep on huffing you blowhard.
JR you are a welfare case. Those windmills wouldn’t exist without subsidies from the taxpayers so you brag about benefiting from a pseudoscience scam.
Be proud.
and how much will your power cost when the subsidies stop the moment they have a monopoly on power generation? Better wake up and smell the coffee
How much will it cost to run the coffee maker?
What was your usage in kWh? What price per kWh? How much of the funding for construction and maintaining those wind turbines was paid by subsidies? What’s the life cycle from day one operation to replacement? How many turbines had to be replaced prior to the expected replacement date? How much of the replacement costs were subsidised?
Here’s the big one…Does the wind power producer have a requirement to provide power…IOW if the wind dies off and turbines ain’t generating electricity do they have to deliver the same amount of electricity ….and are they required to have their own production capacity v trying to buy it from elsewhere? That’s the real test, is the method capable of providing reliable, uninterrupted power to consumers.
Wind can work in a few places. It won’t in most. Without subsidies it isn’t feasible. Without reliable delivery requirements to produce/deliver electricity with in house backup generation from Nat/Gas, coal or whatever else it can’t be considered fully costed. Buying in power from elsewhere sounds great until there’s a regional issue and no spare power to be had or if available at huge prices which should be eaten by the utility not ratepayers.
What does Iowa’s wind have to do with the energy needs of Arizona, or New Mexico, or many other states? Enjoy it, and when the winds die down, freeze or cook all you want.
Here is an interesting tangent regarding carbon fiber which is (widely -exclusively?) used for wind turbine blades
In the EU
The use of carbon fibre in cars could be restricted or even banned if European Union legislators have their way.
The ‘end-of-life’ (ELV) directive is currently undergoing revisions, as lawmakers aren’t happy about the way carbon fibre doesn’t fit into the regulations that require new cars to be made with a minimum of 85 per cent reusable or recoverable materials.
Carbon fibre has long been used because it’s lightweight, highly durable and strong, thusly perfect for high-performance sports car and motorsport bodywork and components. Though it’s been considered environmentally friendly thanks to a longer life span than metal vehicles, it takes 14 times more energy to make compared with steel, according to researchers at the Centre for Corrosion Research in Malaysia. Plus, recycling or recovering it is problematic.
Scrap carbon fibre can’t be melted down and reformed like metals. Composite carbon fibre is most widely recycled via thermal pyrolysis (heating it up to 700°C), but this recovers only 93 per cent of the material, and releases several hazardous gases at the same time.
I wonder if the leftards in, say, Iowa, ever consider the “butterfly effect” of the changes these windmills make to the natural flow of air across their state?
It is possible that such impediments could contribute to tornados or “climate change” in addition to killing birds and generating tons of non disposable, unrecyclable waste when they wear out.
Thank God for the Trump administration. Offshore wind is an environmental disaster.
Reliable, Inexpensive, Renewable. Pick any two. If you pick reliable and inexpensive, it will not be renewable. If you pick renewable and reliable, it will not be inexpensive. If you pick renewable and inexpensive, it will not be reliable.
These are immutable truths. You ignore this at the peril of your economic and environmental health. See Germany as an example of this.
Equinor may only need to wait a year and five months for the houses of congress to flip and they can go back to work.
Given the chronic propensity, perhaps encoded by a “Quisling gene”, the Norwegians are apt to stab foreign partners in the back. They’ve done it to their political allies (NATO, etc.), their European trading partners (just ask Sweden and the Netherlands), so I’m not surprised at all that they thought they could pull a fast one on construction of a wind energy platform with overpriced electricity and technology with built-in obsolescence before the term of the contract ended.