Trump has crushed offshore wind plans, but states haven’t quite given up hope

By Alex Brown Stateline org As President Donald Trump wages an all-out assault on offshore wind projects state leaders face a dilemma Do they pull the plug on offshore wind and look for other options to meet their fast-growing power necessities Or do they double down on their investments in hopes of helping the industry rebound after Trump leaves office Plenty of states along the East Coast have been counting on offshore wind to provide a large portion of their electricity necessities in the decades ahead They ve invested billions of dollars in growing the industry and getting projects off the ground But offshore wind has a particular vulnerability The federal leadership is the landlord Nearly all offshore wind projects are more than miles offshore in ocean waters managed by federal agencies That gives Trump a much more direct path to blocking such projects than for onshore wind and solar projects on private lands Already he has done more to stymie offshore wind than a large number of observers thought was viable including an order to stop work on a wind farm off Rhode Island that was nearly complete This is one of the inadequate areas where states are not in full control of their own potential destiny noted New York state Sen Andrew Gounardes a Democrat This administration is perpetually looking for leverage points to try to squeeze and this is a vulnerable one for us State leaders are not yet backing away from their commitments to offshore wind saying it still has massive long-term possible But they acknowledge Trump has shown the industry s vulnerability to political interference which could scare away investors and developers For now lawmakers say their offshore wind plans have had a massive setback one that could threaten grid reliability and drive up potency bills While specific state leaders have filed lawsuits challenging Trump s orders particular say they may need to start looking to other force sources if offshore wind stalls out Since he took office Trump has halted leases for new wind projects canceled million in funding to backing manufacturing and ports ended clean ability tax credits and broadcasted plans to cancel the approval of a Maryland offshore wind project The greater part drastically Trump last month ordered crews to stop work on Revolution Wind a project off the coast of Rhode Island that is complete Industry leaders say the order to abandon a nearly finished project was unprecedented Dozens of turbines already have been erected with others staged at a nearby pier More than workers were taken off their planned two-week shift installing new turbines the CT Mirror released One construction crew with about members was left stranded at sea unable to work according to The Wall Street Journal This is very much further than was deemed attainable or realistic stated Sam Salustro senior vice president of protocol and industry affairs with Oceantic Organization an industry lobbying group The self-destruction is beyond our scope of imagination at the beginning of the year It s a massive amount of power that s just being held back by the federal executive State and industry leaders have filed lawsuits seeking to finish work on the Revolution Wind project arguing Trump has overstepped his authority While five East Coast offshore wind farms are in the construction phase dozens more projects are still in the planning and permitting stages States have been counting on those projects to power millions of homes but those plans have hit a dead end with Trump in the White House What s less clear is whether the industry can outlast Trump and bounce back after he leaves office Trump s actions are designed to create so much uncertainty and pitfall that the industry does not rebound under a different administration declared Timothy Fox managing director at ClearView Vitality Partners LLC an independent research firm Even if a future administration attempts to revive offshore wind maturation developers and financiers are likely to be wary of investing in a sector with long lead times and such demonstrable voting risks Trump has long opposed offshore wind repeating false states that it harms whales is unreliable and drives up power costs His opposition appeared to originate with the construction of an offshore wind farm near his golf curriculum in Scotland which he deemed an eyesore The White House did not respond to a Stateline interview request State plans For multiple East Coast states offshore wind has become a critical piece of their vitality plans With limited areas on land that are suited for large-scale potency advance lawmakers have turned to sea-based projects which also offer the advantage of strong ocean winds State leaders say such projects could harness massive amounts of power which is urgently needed as details centers and artificial intelligence drive up electricity demands In total eight East Coast states have committed to building more than gigawatts of offshore wind vitality by enough to power more than million homes A few states have invested heavily in overhauling ports building factories and creating workforce improvement programs to help the industry get on its feet Functionaries say the young industry is already creating thousands of manufacturing jobs and reviving coastal economies But now that progress has come to a crashing halt Related Articles Retreating Alsek Glacier reveals new island in southeast Alaska In coastal Ghana female oyster farmers try to save an old practice threatened by situation change National Academy of Sciences rebuffs Trump EPA s effort to undo regulations fighting setting change Youth mental healthcare challenges keep mounting years after Maui wildfires Situation tracking apps measure your carbon footprint Here s how they work The Revolution Wind project in the federal waters off Rhode Island had been expected to provide more than megawatts of electricity starting next year representing about of the power across New England Trump s order to stop work on the Revolution Wind project invoked unspecified national prevention interests with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum later claiming that undersea drones could escape radar detection by attacking through a wind farm Offshore wind developers noted that the project already received extensive reviews and approvals from the Department of Defense and other agencies Canceling the project could threaten the reliability of the region s power grid New England s grid operator ISO New England declared in a message last month I am really concerned that the cancellation or delay of this project could cause a spike in strength domain costs and an impact to the reliability of the grid Katie Dykes commissioner of Connecticut s Department of Resource Environmental Protection advised Stateline There aren t just other projects in the works that can be swapped in Dykes noted Trump s order has made investors hesitant to advocacy other strength projects given Trump s attempt to halt Revolution Wind even after years of planning permitting and construction The attorneys general in Connecticut and Rhode Island have joined project developers in suing the Trump administration hoping to force the completion of the project Last week Burgum explained his agency would be taking a deep look at the five wind farms already under construction CNBC revealed blaming an ideologically driven permitting process that allowed them to move forward While threatening those projects he also mentioned the administration is under discussion with the governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut about allowing work to continue on Revolution Wind Trump s administration previously issued a stop-work order in April for the Empire Wind offshore project in New York but relented the following month and allowed construction to proceed That reversal appeared to follow a deal with Democratic Gov Kathy Hochul to build a gas pipeline in New York Politico communicated But Trump s refusal to issue new permits has halted other pending projects in New York state announced Gounardes the state senator making it impossible for the state to reach its target of gigawatts by Hochul s up-to-date push for more nuclear power he commented is likely a pivot to other forms of resource without carbon emissions Not giving up Meanwhile Trump s administration has signaled that it will revoke permits for a Maryland project that has not yet started construction State leaders in Maryland have committed to building gigawatts of offshore wind by With Trump s delays that timeline is now out of reach mentioned Democratic state Del Lorig Charkoudian who authored the law setting that target For now she declared state leaders should focus on building transmission infrastructure enabling offshore wind to connect to the grid speedily if a new administration enables projects to move forward Nobody s giving up Charkoudian commented Offshore wind is critical to our ability future There s still a lot of work for our states to be doing so we re ahead of the competition when we at last get sanity back in Washington Earlier this month the Democratic governors of Connecticut Massachusetts New Jersey New York and Rhode Island issued a joint announcement praising the industry s boost to the manufacturing sector and calling on Trump to uphold federal permits that have been issued for offshore wind projects But specific state leaders are worried about the industry s viability Trump s actions could be a massive blow reported Massachusetts state Sen Jamie Eldridge a Democrat who has sponsored measure to help the deployment of offshore wind It will be hard to recover from It won t just be Here s a Democratic president restoring everything Industry analysts noted that projects can take nearly a decade to complete Even under a friendly administration investors and developers may now be hesitant to sink billions of dollars into projects that can be abruptly canceled if the next president doesn t like them Eldridge commented Massachusetts is embracing all forms of renewable ability including solar and hydropower from Canada If offshore wind is delayed he explained leaders may need to focus on strength efficiency and reducing power consumption Virginia leaders have committed to building gigawatts of offshore wind projects by the end of That goal will be desperately hard to meet declared state Sen Creigh Deeds a Democrat who chairs the Commerce and Labor Committee If I were an investor I would certainly be worried about the future of offshore wind he mentioned Deeds explained it s too soon to say whether Virginia will need to adjust its ability planning especially as it deals with an influx of figures centers that are driving up electricity demand He declared lawmakers right now are more focused on Trump s cuts to food stamps and Medicaid While specific state leaders say their timelines for offshore wind will now be impossible to meet none have publicly backed away from their long-term goals Industry leaders say there s much that states can be doing now to help the industry rebound after Trump leaves office If we have to wait the next three years there s a lot of work that can be done on the state side noted Alicia Gen Artessa director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance an industry group She called on states to continue building transmission infrastructure to coastal areas and investing in workforce rise programs for offshore wind Salustro with the Oceantic Configuration noted that countless Republicans have embraced offshore wind and the jobs it has created The current battle over offshore wind is largely driven by one person s personality he declared giving him hope the industry can outlast Trump The basic economics are going to prevail long term he mentioned Despite their misgivings multiple state lawmakers largely share that view It s too early to pull the plug on the future of offshore wind revealed Gounardes the New York senator The wind is constantly going to blow no matter who s president and we should be poised to take advantage of that so that when the administration changes we re not a decade behind Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown stateline org States Newsroom Visit at stateline org Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC