U.S. Lifts Ban So New York’s Empire Wind Farm Can Continue Construction
In exchange, the region’s Constitution Pipeline may restart.
In our last report on New York’s massive offshore wind project, Empire Wind, several citizen groups and firms that opposed the project filed a federal lawsuit challenging the bureaucratic approvals granted for its construction.
These organizations claim that U.S. government agencies broke environmental laws by approving the Empire Wind offshore wind project without properly protecting marine mammals or fully studying the environmental impacts.
It’s a good thing they initiated this lawsuit despite the Trump administration’s move to halt the construction last month. The federal government has now lifted its stop-work order.
Equinor, a Norwegian energy company, said construction activities could resume on Empire Wind, a $5 billion project that is expected to someday provide power for half a million homes in New York.
The company had warned it could lose billions of dollars in response to the order issued on April 16, raising concerns that fully permitted developments representing billions in investment are not safe. It said it was spending $50 million weekly to keep the project afloat during the suspension.
“I would like to thank President Trump for finding a solution that saves thousands of American jobs and provides for continued investments in energy infrastructure in the U.S.,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement.
Many of us who have followed news of whale deaths, environmental contamination from fallen blades, and the myriad of other problems and energy inefficiencies associated with these massive offshore farms are disappointed.
EMPIRE WIND IS BACK ON TRACK—BOEM just lifted the stop work order on the project. Bad news for our marine ecosystem, fisheries & coastal tourism. Construction will now resume—despite major unanswered environmental & economic questions. Only 30% built—but 100% wrong for our coast.… pic.twitter.com/7Lq6sAw3PG
— SaveLBI (@saveLBIorg) May 20, 2025
Beege Welborn of Hot Hair explains that this move may be part of Trump’s Realpolitik and “Art of the Deal” negotiations with the Scandinavian countries interested in the fiscal health of the Norwegian company building Empire Wind.
I can only assume that at the time Burgum put the brakes on Empire Wind – with heavy Danish and Norwegian investments already as sunk costs – Trump was also trying to work through his Liberation Day tariff strategy.
Lights begin to go on when one realizes that Equinor, the company responsible for the project, is mainly owned by the government of Norway (the owner is literally listed as the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries). It is primarily a petroleum multinational energy company with a renewables division, not an independent wind development contractor.
The project pause was pushing Equinor ‘to the brink of collapse.’
There is some good news to be had, though. Part of the deal includes expanding the region’s energy profile to a reliable and cost-effective source: Natural gas.
The Constitution Pipeline was a proposed 124-mile natural gas pipeline intended to transport gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale to New York and potentially onward to New England. Originally backed by Williams Partners and others, the project received federal approval but was blocked in 2016 when New York State denied a crucial water quality permit, citing environmental concerns. After years of legal and regulatory battles, Williams officially canceled the project in February 2020, citing diminished economic returns and persistent permitting obstacles.
Trump has made the revival of the Constitution Pipeline a priority, declaring a national energy emergency and signaling a willingness to use federal authority to expedite pipeline approvals, potentially bypassing state-level environmental objections.
The pipeline may be back, baby!
“The road ahead for the Constitution Pipeline remains bumpy, but the broad strokes of a logical deal could be a win-win for end users,” analysts at energy consulting firm EBW Analytics said in a note.
Officials at U.S. energy firm Williams Cos…one of Constitution Pipeline’s joint venture partners, were not immediately available for comment. With U.S. President Donald Trump back in office and voicing his support for the Constitution project, executives at Williams have said the company was looking at dusting off plans for the pipeline under the right circumstances.
Meanwhile, the citizen lawsuit continues..so there is at least hope that we get a working pipeline and lose the whale killing fields.
A statement from POCNJ about Empire Wind:
There was a shocking announcement last night that the federal government reversed course on the Empire Wind Project. We were as stunned to see this news as anyone. We believe that offshore wind anywhere is a terrible idea. And this… pic.twitter.com/Xq8eB8W5o8
— Protect Our Coast NJ (@njcoast_protect) May 20, 2025
I will simply point out that this deal cost the Trump team much goodwill and political capital, so I hope it works out for them.
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Comments
Take a trip over to the Manhattan Contrarian website/blog. He has explained why this big NY wind project is/will be a disaster. He isn’t alone. That the Trump people have signed off on this depresses me.
The offshore wind farms are being blamed for the dramatic rise in whale and dolphin deaths in New England. I’m not a fan.
Money changed hands. The approval was granted. It’s how it works. The occupant of the White House makes no difference.
The key to the approval by the trip administration was the very fact that this was a project that had already been approved. It was all set to go. Sunk costs are a real thing as his investor confidence. If investors start to believe that the federal government will All of a sudden cancel a fully permitted, fully approved project, it is going to create many problems downstream.
That is a separate issue from whether the wind farm is a good idea. The people suing can address that in court, and that’s exactly where this should be addressed. But for the Trump administration to cancel a fully approved, fully permitted project is not a good thing. But the Trump administration and the environmental activists have made the right decision for the right reasons.
Interesting reasoning.
Do you feel the same way about the hordes of illegals that were invited by the Biden administration? Should they stay because, after all, they were invited and they’re here
Easy peazy, no?
Or do we do the hard thing, realize a mistake was made, and fix it?
I say we fix it
Solyndra was also paid for…
“If investors start to believe that the federal government will All of a sudden cancel a fully permitted, fully approved project, it is going to create many problems downstream.”
You mean, like Keystone Pipeline?
That ship is out of the barn.
If Trump had claimed “Democrat Rules,” I wouldn’t have booed him.
So I guess now the rule is, Democrats are allowed to F construction projects over, but Republicans can’t.
I’m with you. This was a wrong move on Trump’s part.
It may be that Trump lifted the ban in anticipation of the lawsuit being successful in stopping it or at least pursuing an Obama “backroom sue and settle” strategy. Perplexing to say the least
I’m sure there’s room for yet another knife in my back. Don’t mind all the others.
A terrible, terrible decision.
With regard to the solar power and wind power construction, all I care about is whether or not taxpayer dollars are subsidizing them. If no taxpayer dollars are being used I have NO problem with people/corporations pouring their money down these negative-return rat holes. Without both direct subsidies (dollars per kW-H) and the existing maze of indirect subsidies that “renewable” power gets (no reactive power requirements, siting preferences, lack of meaningful environmental-impact statements, et cetera), no one would build these boondoggles.
The fact that they wish to continue with these means that taxpayer dollars ARE being used to subsidize them…which should be halted immediately.
When the bird-chopper subsidies were coming up for renewal the AWEA noted (threatened?) that NOT A SINGLE PROJECT would go through without the subsidies. The Trump administration doesn’t need to block the projects, all they’ve got to do is stop paying for them. They’ll die on their own, since not a single one has ever been (or ever will be) profitable.
I care only to the extent that these projects have on wildlife and the surrounding area.
That and whether they are required to deliver the amounts of electricity to the grid at a reasonable, unsubsidized price per kWh. Every provider should have that burden absent extraordinary event….the sun going down at night and the wind speed being too high or too low to generate electricity are NOT extraordinary events. Require them to have on site Nat Gas generation sufficient to replace the proposed output to guarantee no intermittent power flow to the grid.
diver64:
Much like offshore oil platforms, the offshore bird-choppers don’t have much of an impact on any wildlife. The effects on aquatic animals seems to be limited to the seismic explorations done for foundation exploration, and of the driving of piles for anchoring the jackets (the portions underwater).
Once they are in place, they are relatively benign, and actually perform as “artificial reefs”, providing shelter and food sources for fish. In the GoM (oops, that’s now GoA) the platforms near shore are considered to be good fishing spots.
CommoChief:
There’s really not too much of a problem with the minuscule amounts of power that the intermittent and unreliable wind systems feed into the grid. It only becomes a massive problem when the grid actually tries to RELY on them for power. Bird-choppers provide power only about 17% of the time; the other 83% (on average) they don’t do a bloody thing except take in minor amounts of electricity for continued enclosure heating, bearing pumps, etc.
Solar is even worse in terms of environmental damage. Take a look at the concentrating solar plant out near the Cal/Nev border, where hundreds of acres of desert have been destroyed…and the aerial view shows the teeny-tiny little gas turbine plant the provides a hundred times more power than the solar plant, on a micro-fraction of the land. That’s what the eco-whackos call “saving the environment”.
Terrible just terrible
Trump flipped? Why?
Biden green new deal is trillion dollar fraud. Shut it down.
Offshore wind turbines, in addition to dealing with the problem of intermittent wind that is inherent to all wind turbines, also have to deal with the problem of shortened lifespan and more expensive/frequent maintenance, because of corrosion and other damage caused by salt water and a harsh marine environment. Meaning even more turbine down-time and non-production of electricity. Thus making such projects even more stupid, costly and ill-conceived than land-based turbines.
Surprisingly both onshore and offshore windmills have the same 20-25 year estimated lifespan but require enormous maintenance costs in the 7-10 yr timeframe that could equal the cost of a new structure. Without continued repair subsidies most now being abandoned in place in favor of building more to qualify for new tax subsidies. This is according to studies out of the UK and America.
Make that 20 years max.
Say what you will, but there are benefits, namely and obviously, the pipeline. I loathe them. I would like to do a dive around the base of some of them and see what the effects on wildlife are.
That said, this also pulls the rug out from under obstructive NY permitting and regs, which are also holding up oil shale development.
With Biden’s autopen, you’d have gotten the windmills and nothing else. At least President Trump knows that compromise exists.
wind and/or solar being attempted or in fact helping out with our needs is not the problem
the scamming government and their socialist agenda to curtail americas freedom(s) to choose is the issue
states shutting down fossil fuels is anti american and should be illegal as the government should not have control over business………except if you support the destruction of the middle class
djt ~~~ dont fail us >>>maga!!!
We need reliable, old fashion nuclear power plants so we can mothball all these windmill and solar boondoggles!
Art of the.deal is one thing, art of the backroom deal done out of sight of the public is quite another. These wind and solar projects are boondoggles which can’t compete absent subsidies or higher costs per kWh. Nor do they produce consistent, reliable power that can be delivered to consumers. Until these projects are.required to have on site backup generation to meet the demand they should not be approved.
I think that “boondoggles” is a gross understatement. The tax credits for construction of this particular item starts at 30% of installed cost, and goes up based on things in the IRA which include sourcing of steel, etc. That is not a “boondoggle”, but is actually larceny perpetrated on the American people. These don’t have to be the best economic choice, nor do they have to meet the lifetime or other promises with guarantees. Then figure if you have 100 MW installed, and get the DOE estimated credits, and operate 50% of the time, that is another $11.4 million/year that we are bilked to pay.
Then add the grid uncertainty of these projects, and what they cost for having to have redundant power supplies that can be spun up in short order, and what you have is not a boondoggle solution, but an actual economic disaster in the making.
I’m dismayed at this; but more dismayed that congressional Republicans negotiating the BBB are allowing IRA boondoggle projects to continue–or be “phased out” over decades. Missed a huge chance to put a dent in the deficit.
Now THIS is “The Art of the Deal”, where you trade something that is really bad for us (more “base-load” wind that is not reliable) for a “maybe” restart of a pipeline. My 10-year-old grandson makes better deals than this.
Arghhhh…. this green crap will be the economic death of all of us eventually. Less power with less reliability at higher cost. My gas bills are higher because some of the money is being diverted to green projects I neither want nor need.