If you didn’t think President Donald Trump’s attacks on offshore wind could get worse, think again. In just the last week, the administration targeted more already-permitted wind projects, slashed funding for projects tied to offshore wind, and enlisted a wide array of federal departments to go after the industry.
Trump vowed on the first day of his term that “we aren’t going to do the wind thing,” and it’s been blow after blow to the sector since. But in the last two weeks, the Trump administration has doubled down on its commitment to crushing offshore wind in particular — and what was already an aggressive campaign has now become an all-out war.
In late August, the Interior Department sent a stop-work order to the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island, even though the development is just months away from completion. It echoed a similar — failed — attempt to halt construction of the Empire Wind project off the coast of New York back in April.
New England’s grid operator has since warned that delays will jeopardize power reliability and raise electricity prices, and even fishermen who voted for Trump are urging the administration to let work resume. Developer Ørsted and the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut are now suing the Trump administration to get Revolution Wind construction up and running.
The halt turned out to be just the start of a new wave of attacks. Late last week, the Transportation Department said it would pull $679 million from projects to support offshore wind. That includes about $426 million granted to turn a California port into the country’s first hub for floating offshore wind construction.
And now, Trump is expanding his full-court press by calling on federal departments that typically have nothing to do with offshore wind, The New York Times reports. The Health and Human Services Department is apparently researching whether turbines emit harmful electromagnetic waves — a claim multiple studies have debunked. And the Defense Department is looking into whether offshore wind farms pose national security risks, the dubious reason the administration cited when halting Revolution Wind last month.
If it wasn’t clear before, it is now: The Trump administration is going to leave no stone unturned in its attempt to stop offshore wind in America.
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Court OKs green bank termination
The Trump administration scored a significant, but potentially temporary, win in its efforts to claw back billions of dollars meant to bring clean energy to communities nationwide. A federal appeals court decided on Tuesday that the U.S. EPA has the authority to cancel awards under the $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The “green bank” program, created by the Inflation Reduction Act, is supposed to provide low-interest loans for emissions-reducing projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The EPA moved early in Trump’s presidency to revoke the funds, which had already been awarded to the nonprofits administering the program, and the money has been frozen in Citibank accounts ever since. Still, it’s not the end of the line: The nonprofits indicate they’ll appeal the decision further.
