BOSTON — The Trump administration put the brakes on five multi-billion dollar offshore wind farms, including one off the coast of Massachusetts, citing unspecified national security risks from the clean-energy projects.
The Interior Department announced Monday it is pausing federal leases for large-scale offshore wind projects currently under construction, effective immediately. The halts are the Vineyard Wind 1, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1 projects.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum cited unspecified national security risks posed by the offshore wind turbines in halting federal permits for the projects. He said the move is aimed at protecting the American people.
“Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers,” he said in a statement.
In a social media post Monday, Burgum called offshore wind “expensive, unreliable and heavily subsidized” and said the Trump administration is focused on expanding natural gas.
“ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.” Burgum posted on X. “POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy policy & putting security FIRST!”
The move to halt the projects, which is likely to be challenged in court, marks a dramatic escalation in President Donald Trump’s efforts to cancel clean energy projects approved under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
It also comes two weeks after a federal judge blocked a Jan. 20 Trump order that halted several offshore wind energy projects along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to New Jersey.
Trump has vowed to do away with offshore wind, claiming the floating wind turbines “cause tremendous problems with the fish and the whales,” while driving up the cost of energy.
In September, Trump directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to cancel $679 million in federal funding for a dozen infrastructure projects that would support New England Wind and other projects, saying the plans “were not aligned with the goals and priorities of the administration.”
The cuts included a federal grant for the Salem Offshore Wind Terminal project, which got underway last summer after getting funding and state and federal permits.
The $300 million Salem Offshore Wind Terminal, a partnership between Crowley Wind Services, Salem and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, calls for redeveloping a 42-acre site formerly occupied by a coal- and oil-fired power plant.
Massachusetts has set some of the toughest environmental regulations in the country with a goal of reaching “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions relative to 1990 levels by 2050. To meet those goals, the state plans to generate at least 5,600 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2027.
Environmental groups blasted the move to halt the projects, saying it threatens thousands of jobs in the offshore-wind industry and undermines the state’s efforts to shift from reliance on fossil fuels to clean energy.
“This is a desperate rerun of the Trump administration’s failed attempt to kill offshore wind – an effort the courts have already rejected,” said Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation. “Many of these clean energy projects passed years of rigorous review, were upheld in court, and are moving forward.”
She added, “Trying again to halt these projects tramples on the rule of law, threatens jobs, and deliberately sabotages a critical industry that strengthens, not weakens, America’s energy security.”
But the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance welcomed the Interior Department’s pause on the projects, saying it will protect the state’s energy consumers from higher costs.
“Governor Maura Healey and her administration have championed offshore wind but that doesn’t change the fact that it is one of the most expensive forms of energy in America,” MassFiscal executive director Paul Craney said in a statement. “Massachusetts and New England ratepayers desperately need inexpensive, clean, reliable, American natural gas to help drive down costs, not more expensive offshore wind energy and arbitrary climate mandates.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.