Saving Seafood

Trump administration halts under-construction Revolution Wind project

August 27, 2025 — The Trump administration has taken another big swipe at the offshore wind industry, issuing a stop work order on Friday afternoon on Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, which as of this month was well under construction and 80% complete.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited “concerns that have arisen” during the project-wide review ordered by President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 wind memo, as well as national security concerns.

“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas,” wrote BOEM Acting Director Matthew Giacona in the two-page order.

Less than one year ago, the agency signed a memorandum of understanding with the Defense Department, formalizing collaboration between the agencies to ensure that lease areas and project plans will “strengthen the nation’s energy security in ways that are compatible with military operations.”

In a statement, Orsted said it is “evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously. This includes engagement with relevant permitting agencies for any necessary clarification or resolution as well as through potential legal proceedings, with the aim being to proceed with continued project construction towards … the second half of 2026.”

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

Democratic governors demand Trump resume offshore wind project near Rhode Island

August 26, 2025 — A nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut faces an uncertain future as the states’ Democratic governors, members of Congress and union workers are calling Monday for the Trump administration to let construction resume.

The administration halted construction on the Revolution Wind project last week, saying the federal government needs to review the project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Monday it’s not commenting further at this time.

Read the full article at PBS

Trump administration strikes at Revolution Wind project

August 25, 2025 — The Trump administration issued a stop-work order Friday on Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project, a 65-turbine, 704-megawatt array already almost complete off southern New England. The order followed an announcement Thursday that the administration will investigate “national security” issues around offshore wind power projects.

In a letter to Denmark-based Ørsted the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited national security as the reason for the agency’s sudden decision to review the project despite previous approvals under the Biden administration.

“Ørsted is evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,” including court action, the company said in a statement.

Revolution Wind, under construction off Rhode Island, has been vigorously opposed by the commercial fishing industry for its siting near Cox Ledge, an important habitat for cod. In 2023 fishermen’s fierce opposition led to the mass resignation of  the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Advisory Board, whose members charged the state Coastal Resource Management Council is too deferential to wind development interests at the expense of habitat and fisheries impacts.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

‘Offshore Wind Gets a Pass’ When It Comes to Environmental Concerns

August 19, 2025 —  In 2024, I penned an op-ed here at ecoRI News entitled Commonsense Environmentalism is Being Destroyed by a Wind-Less Revolution, opening with a statement that, “the Ocean State has become ground zero for the most important environmental battle in modern times.” Indeed, this battle persists — that is, whether to preserve and protect nature, versus to concede nature for the fantastical ideology of a greenwashed industrial panacea.

This rift was exposed through recent reporting that summarizes the outcome of a recent Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) meeting in Portsmouth, R.I. The meeting aimed to productively discuss the plans for South Coast Wind to run a power cable from 60 miles offshore extending up through the Sakonnet River, beneath Portsmouth, and then up through Mount Hope Bay to Brayton Point. The meeting was well attended, with equal numbers of public comments presented by both opponents and supporters of the project. Despite these equal voices, the ecoRI News article emphasized that those opposed were the minority opinion, even denigrating such opinions as parroted views of those under the thumb of fossil fuel lobbyists.

This is nothing further from the truth, and a significant disservice to those seeking balanced environmental reporting from which their own opinions may be formulated.

While it would take multiple volumes of literature to collate the plethora of very valid concerns for harms that both onshore and offshore industrial activities inflict, it is worth dispelling the mythology promulgated in the follow-up to the EFSB meeting. I will do so here through several exemplary issues that are very real and should resonate for all — regardless of your personal opinions on the windless revolution.

First, the ecoRI News reporting claimed South Coast Wind is “expected to generate 2,400 megawatts (MW) of electricity, powering around a million homes by the end of the decade.” On Jan. 17, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced approval of a Construction and Operations Plan with the potential to generate up to 2,400 megawatts of which could power 840,000 homes. These facts matter when separating marketing propaganda from reality. For visual perspective, the project is slated to span 127,388 acres of the continental shelf — more than 10 TIMES the land area of Providence. Would you advocate that an equivalent farmland area be mowed for a solar farm? Unlikely.

Read the full article at EcoRI

MARYLAND: Offshore wind project for OC not impacted by federal action

August 8, 2025 — A decision to rescind all Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) located in federal waters will not affect an offshore wind project near Ocean City’s coast.

That’s the message City Manager Terry McGean delivered last week after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it was taking that action in areas located on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

“These are the ‘new’ lease areas that were being vetted back in 2022-24,” he explained. “It was known as the Central Atlantic planning area.”

On July 30, the Trump administration announced it was closing federal waters to new wind energy development, effectively reversing course on the Biden administration’s plan to build up the industry.

Read the full article at the OC-Today-Dispatch

Offshore wind plans caught in federal headwinds, but sites east of Cape Cod unaffected

August 7, 2025 — State and local officials and regional advocacy groups are split over the federal government’s decision to back off on offshore wind projects, a shift that casts uncertainty over new projects nationwide but doesn’t affect leases east and south of Cape Cod.

State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-West Barnstable, welcomes the changes as “a necessary course correction.”

“It reflects what many of us on Cape Cod and across the commonwealth have been saying for some time: the rush to industrialize our oceans has gone too far, too fast, and without enough science, transparency, or respect for local communities,” he said.

He added that the action “gives us a critical opportunity to pause, reassess, and get this right.”

Read the full article at Cape Cod Times

 

Wind industry doubts any new offshore projects in next year thanks to Trump

August 4, 2025 — The offshore wind industry cast doubt on any new projects starting construction in the next year, as the Trump administration has removed subsidies for and added restrictions on the renewable power source.

President Donald Trump harshly criticized the industry while visiting Scotland in late July, saying his administration would not allow a windmill to be built in the United States. As his public criticisms increase and various agencies have taken action to stifle growth, that promise appears likely to come true.

Read the full article at The Washington Examiner

Offshore wind leasing is officially dead under Trump

August 4, 2025 — This story was originally published by Canary Media.

Offshore wind leasing is effectively dead in the U.S. following a Trump administration order issued last week.

Large swaths of U.S. waters that had been identified by federal agencies as ideal for offshore wind are no longer eligible for such developments under an Interior Department statement released Wednesday.

In the four-sentence statement, the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said the U.S. government is ​“de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of America, Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic.”

The move comes just a day after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered his staff to stop ​“preferential treatment for wind projects” and falsely called wind energy ​“unreliable.” Analysts say that offshore wind power can be a reliable form of carbon-free energy, especially in New England, where the region’s grid operator has called it critical to grid stability. It also follows the Trump administration’s monthslong assault on the industry, which has included multiple attacks on in-progress projects.

Read the full article at Maine Morning Star

Trump administration cancels plans to develop new offshore wind projects

August 1, 2025 — The Trump administration is canceling plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development, the latest step to suppress the industry in the United States.

More than 3.5 million acres had been designated wind energy areas, the offshore locations deemed most suitable for wind energy development. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is now rescinding all designated wind energy areas in federal waters, announcing on Wednesday an end to setting aside large areas for “speculative wind development.”

Offshore wind lease sales were anticipated off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Maine, New York, California and Oregon, as well as in the central Atlantic. The Biden administration last year had announced a five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production.

Trump began reversing the country’s energy policies after taking office in January. A series of executive orders took aim at increasing oil, gas and coal production.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

BOEM cancels all offshore Wind Energy Area designations

August 1, 2025 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) dealt a massive blow against offshore wind on 30 July by abruptly rescinding all Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) it had designated on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), canceling years of planning dating back to 2014.

“By rescinding WEAs, BOEM is ending the federal practice of designating large areas of the OCS for speculative wind development and is de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of America, Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic,” BOEM said in a statement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource