August 27, 2025 — The Trump administration announced in a legal filing last week that it intends to revoke construction approvals for a controversial planned wind farm off the Delaware-Maryland coast within the next three weeks.
The move comes after the administration has spent months opposing offshore wind power, and more recently honing that opposition against Baltimore-based US Wind’s Delmarva project.
August 27, 2025 — The efforts to derail the U.S. offshore wind energy business are continuing with the Department of Justice confirming the Trump administration’s intent to withdraw previously issued approvals for Maryland’s first offshore wind farm to be developed by US Wind. Justice informed district courts in Delaware and Maryland of its intended action following an earlier jurisdictional dispute between Maryland and the federal Environmental Protection Agency that also sought to challenge the process for the Maryland project.
The TV news channel in Maryland, WBOC, reported on Friday, August 22, that the Department of Justice had moved to stay a pending lawsuit in Delaware in which a homeowner is challenging the wind farm’s permits under the Clean Water Act. The reasoning the DOJ gave was its intent to withdraw approval for the wind farm, making the court case irrelevant and a waste of time.
DOJ on Monday, August 25, WBOC reports, filed additional details in the District Court of Maryland. There it told the court that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOEM) intends to “voluntarily remand and vacate its approval of the Construction and Operations Plan” for US Wind’s Maryland windfarm project. DOJ revealed the action would come by September 12.
August 27, 2025 — After the Trump administration has ordered a halt to construction of a nearly complete $4 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Dominion Energy’s $10.9 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project off the coast of Virginia Beach could be in similar peril.
On Aug. 22, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management stopped Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, which already has 45 of 65 turbines installed, along with all underwater foundations. Citing a January memorandum by President Donald Trump, BOEM told Orsted North America to “halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind Project” while the federal government reviews potential national security concerns.
August 26, 2025 — When the Trump administration ordered that construction stop last week at Revolution Wind, a giant wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was nearly finished, it alluded vaguely to national security concerns but did not offer any further explanation.
It’s becoming a striking pattern.
The order was the third time the Trump administration had revoked permits or halted work on wind farms that had already received federal approval while offering little legal justification for doing so, following actions against wind projects in New York and Idaho. Legal experts say that there is little basis for blocking projects that have already received permits.
The Trump administration has signaled in a court filing that it next plans to rescind federal approvals for yet another wind farm, the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which had not yet begun construction but would consist of up to 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md. The filing was first reported by WBOC.
August 26, 2025 — The Trump administration intends to withdraw federal approval for US Wind’s wind farm off the coast of Maryland, according to a document filed in federal court on Friday.
In the filing, in U.S. District Court in Delaware, attorneys from the Department of Justice asked the court to stay a lawsuit by a Delaware homeowner challenging the Interior Department’s approval last year of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project.
The action is the latest in a series of moves the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has made to stymie development of offshore wind and other clean energy facilities.
The Biden administration approved the US Wind project in September of last year. It was expected to one day produce enough power for 718,000 homes.
The Trump administration, by September 12, will move in a separate lawsuit brought by officials in Ocean City, Maryland to vacate approval of the facility’s construction and operations plan, the filing said. That lawsuit is pending in federal court in Maryland.
Read the full article at Reuters
August 26, 2025 — Despite a strong desire to install a massive offshore wind farm, New Jersey is hitting pause on future wind energy projects.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has decided to delay the implementation of certain offshore wind energy infrastructure projects due to “significant uncertainty” stemming from federal policy changes. This decision also included canceling the Atlantic Shores wind project, an offshore wind energy initiative aimed at generating renewable energy for New Jersey.
“The Board finds that, due to the significant federal uncertainty in the offshore wind market, and Atlantic Shores inability to complete Project under the terms of the OREC Order, it is in the public interest to vacate the OREC Order and the Project’s status as a [Qualified Offshore Wind Project],” the board’s ruling reads.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that would effectively pave the way to cancel plans for new offshore wind energy development. The move also rescinded previously designated areas for offshore wind farms. The Trump administration then froze new or renewed permits, approvals, and loans for wind projects.
August 20, 2025 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) seek a science-industry team to conduct a pilot regional industry-based bottom trawl survey (RIBTS). This pilot survey will be used to define the operational requirements for a full scale, shelf-wide, multispecies, industry-based bottom trawl survey that will complement our federal Bottom Trawl Survey conducted aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow.
The Commission will issue a funding contract to a science and fishing industry team to conduct field work off the coast of southern New England to:
The pilot survey will need to be conducted in the fall of 2025 or spring 2026. Data processing will need to be completed and standard operating procedures drafted within six months of field work completion.
The deadline to submit proposals is midnight ET on September 5, 2025. Please see the RFP online for complete proposal details, qualifying requirements, and submission instructions.
Please contact Anna Mercer at anna.mercer@noaa.gov.
August 19, 2025 — Hurricane Erin churned slowly toward the eastern U.S. on Tuesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have led to dozens of water rescues and shut down beaches along the coast in the midst of summer’s last hurrah.
While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore, the outer edges are likely to bring damaging tropical-force winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents into Friday.
Warnings about rip currents have been posted from Florida to the New England coast, and the biggest swells along the East Coast are expected over the coming two days. Rough ocean conditions already have been seen along the coast — at least 60 swimmers were rescued from rip currents Monday at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina.
New York City closed its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered three state beaches on Long Island to prohibit swimming through Thursday. Several New Jersey beaches also will be off-limits.
August 19, 2025 — Maryland’s crab fishery has faced labor shortages and heavy competition from cheap imports for several years, but Bill Sieling, the executive vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, is warning that the issues are now reaching a breaking point.
The Mid-Atlantic U.S. state’s crab fishery, like many seafood subsectors throughout the country, relies on seasonal workers to fill temporary positions. Many of those seasonal workers are from foreign countries, and to fill those positions the federal government allocates H-2B visas to employers through a lottery – meaning businesses have no guarantee on how many temporary workers they’re able to bring in every year.
August 18, 2025 — Susan Linder was hunting for buried treasure.
Every spring, the crabs clickety-clack ashore for a massive orgy timed to the rise and fall of the tides, depositing millions of eggs in the sand.