July 27, 2026 — On a recent weekday afternoon, the State Pier and the adjacent City Pier 3 were bustling with fishing boats, passengers waiting to board the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard or eating lunch at the Whale’s Tail Clam Bar.
But just a mile down the road, at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, the only chatter came from the seagulls gathering on the empty concrete. The terminal was envisioned as the hub of Massachusetts’ offshore wind industry. But except for the signs at its entrance, a visitor could easily mistake it for an empty waterfront lot.
Construction on Vineyard Wind 1, the first utility-scale offshore wind project in Massachusetts, was completed in March. The 62 turbines off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard can generate up to 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 400,000 homes.
The Marine Commerce Terminal was expected to host the next offshore wind project, SouthCoast Wind, almost immediately after Vineyard Wind 1, but delays from the federal government under the Trump administration have brought the industry to a halt.
The slowdown comes as Massachusetts continues to face some of the highest energy costs in the nation. The state consumes roughly 22 times more electricity than it generates and relies heavily on imported power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.