New England Offshore Wind Projects Likely to Survive Trump Order

Maybe

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

Trump's hatred of wind power goes back to his
losing fight to stop Scotland from building turbines
offshore from his golf course.

Offshore wind projects already underway are expected to survive in New England, for now.

Newly inaugurated Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at curtailing the development of offshore and onshore wind in the United States. The order revokes the offshore wind leases in the Outer Continental Shelf — the area of the ocean in which many wind projects are in development — until further notice, and prohibits consideration of any new offshore wind projects.

During the campaign, Trump was hostile to renewable energy sources, pledging to end the offshore wind industry upon his return to the White House and boost the nation’s fossil fuel production.

But the order is expected to have limited impact for most of the wind projects in the New England region. Many of the projects have already received final approvals from the federal government prior to Trump taking office, with SouthCoast Wind securing federal permits less than a week before the transition.

SouthCoast Wind was also awarded a multistate procurement from Massachusetts and Rhode Island to deliver 1,287 megawatts (MW) of power by 2030, with construction expected to start sometime this year, according to the project website.

“In the United States, we believe in the potential of our offshore wind projects to create thousands of jobs, generate billions of dollars in economic activity, and provide new energy generation to meet rapidly growing demand,” Michael Brown, CEO of SouthCoast Wind and Ocean Winds North America, said in a statement. “We will continue to assess the scope and implications of the executive orders on our three U.S. projects. Offshore wind farms are long-term development projects, and we will keep on finding a path forward in coordination with all relevant authorities.”

Ocean Winds North America, the Boston-based parent company attached to the SouthCoast Wind project, was also awarded two additional lease areas for offshore wind in 2022. Blue Point Wind, which will generate 2,400 MW of power off the coast of New Jersey, and Golden State Wind, which will generate 2 gigawatts of energy off the California coast.

Other projects off Rhode Island shores are further along in development. Revolution Wind, which has been under construction since 2023, is expected to be completed next year, and will deliver 400 MW to Rhode Island. Revolution Wind officials didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.

Kate Sinding Daly, vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, told ecoRI News the New England wind projects are in a good position.

“If they’ve got their permits in hand before the issuance of the executive order, they are good to go,” Daly said. “The Biden administration was clearly doing what it could to ensure projects were fully permitted before the end of the administration.”

Clawing back the existing permits in New England not impacted by the executive order would be difficult, according to Daly. Any attempts to cancel current contracts would likely face legal challenges from the wind companies, participating state governments, and other entities interested in keeping the projects alive. Procedurally, it would likely require new federal rule-making, and be subject to judicial review, leading to delays.

“It’s not something [Trump] can do with the stroke of a pen,” Daly said.

Rhode Island’s coastal regulating agency, the Coastal Resources Management Council, shared a similar view when reached by ecoRI News. Since 2020, the agency has reviewed and permitted four offshore wind projects and has asked the state for more money and more staff to handle the future workload stemming from offshore wind.

“To the best of our understanding, any projects that have been permitted or are under construction are not impacted by the executive order,” CRMC spokesperson Laura Dwyer said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Dan McKee’s administration said it’s standing by the state’s offshore wind projects as a critical component of Rhode Island’s energy economy.

“We continue to be committed to advancing offshore wind and the long-term benefits it provides for our state and our region,” McKee spokesperson Olivia DaRocha said. “Any operations delay that could be caused by this order will adversely impact not only the Ocean State’s economy, but also our critically important Act on Climate goals.”

Offshore wind hasn’t been universally popular, even in Rhode Island, and campaigns to eliminate the industry have ramped up in recent years. Green Oceans, a Little Compton-based group that organized in 2022 as a nonprofit, strongly opposes the industry, alleging offshore wind is industrializing the ocean and is destructive to the environment.

A report released late last year mapped Green Oceans amidst a larger network of dark money and anti-offshore wind groups that share similar rhetorical claims used to advance the interests of the fossil fuel industry. Green Oceans denied the veracity of the report.

“Relative to other places, we’re in a pretty good place in New England,” Daly said. “We’re in a region with a lot of strong state leaders who take the imperative of making forward progress on climate, even under an adverse federal government.”