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BOEM to consider revoking New England Wind 1 approval

December 3, 2025 — The federal agency regulating offshore wind development asked a federal judge on Tuesday to allow it to reconsider a key approval — one the same agency granted just last year — for New England Wind 1, a project planned off the Massachusetts coast.

If the federal government’s request is granted, it would be a blow to the project, which plans to invest in New Bedford and use the city for long-term project operations. If the approval stands, the project could move toward construction once it secures a power purchase agreement with the commonwealth.

This is at least the third time the administration has sought a remand of an offshore wind project approval, the others being for SouthCoast Wind and Maryland’s US Wind. The permits give major infrastructure projects the certainty to secure financing and move forward with construction.

The filing comes more than two months after the federal government signaled it would take such action against this project. The remand request was expected sooner, but the weekslong government shutdown pushed the deadline.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management filed the motion as part of a lawsuit brought in May by offshore wind opposition group ACK for Whales and other parties, including the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, against BOEM and the Interior Department’s approval of New England Wind 1.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Delaware judge pauses US Wind appeal in wake of new law

December 3, 2025 — A compromise struck in June between Delaware lawmakers is now poised to end litigation challenging a Sussex County decision to block a controversial wind farm planned just off its shores.

The development follows a complex series of events that began a year ago when Sussex County decided to not approve a plan for a land-based substation that the 121-turbine wind farm needed to operate.

Not only did the wind farm developer – US Wind – appeal the decision to a Delaware court, but its Democratic supporters in the state legislature later introduced legislation to override and reverse the Sussex County substation denial.

The legislation led to a late-night standoff during the final hours of the legislative session that had Republicans threatening to block passage of Delaware’s capital budget. Ultimately, they  relented after Democrats agreed to postpone its effective date until early 2026.

On Monday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Mark Conner decided to pause the appeal in advance of the January effective date for the new law.

Conner explicitly pointed to the new law when ordering the pause.

Read the full article at Spotlight Delaware

Europe’s Green Energy Rush Slashed Emissions—and Crippled the Economy

December 2, 2025 — European politicians pitched the continent’s green transition to voters as a win-win: Citizens would benefit from green jobs and cheap, abundant solar and wind energy alongside a sharp reduction in carbon emissions.

Nearly two decades on, the promise has largely proved costly for consumers and damaging for the economy.

Europe has succeeded in slashing carbon emissions more than any other region—by 30% from 2005 levels, compared with a 17% drop for the U.S. But along the way, the rush to renewables has helped drive up electricity prices in much of the continent.

Germany now has the highest domestic electricity prices in the developed world, while the U.K. has the highest industrial electricity rates, according to a basket of 28 major economies analyzed by the International Energy Agency. Italy isn’t far behind. Average electricity prices for heavy industries in the European Union remain roughly twice those in the U.S. and 50% above China. Energy prices have also grown more volatile as the share of renewables increased.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal

Revolution Wind work goes on as Trump administration misses deadline

November 25, 2025 — The Trump administration missed last week’s deadline to appeal a federal judge’s decision ordering work to resume on the Revolution Wind project, handing another victory to advocates and local officials who have fought to keep the project afloat.

Construction of the of the 704-megawatt wind farm — which is being staged from the State Pier in New London — was allowed to resume on Sept. 22 after U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the federal government lacked justification when it halted work on the project earlier this year.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which issued the stop-work order, had 60 days to appeal the judge’s decision. That deadline passed on Friday, Nov. 21 with no action taken by the federal government.

“The Trump administration is rightly choosing not to continue to defend the indefensible,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement Monday. “Trump’s erratic actions were the height of arbitrary and capricious government action, and their decision not to pursue this defense is further confirmation of that. This is a major win for Connecticut workers and Connecticut families.”

A BOEM spokesperson declined to comment Monday.

In response to a series of questions seeking clarity on whether the administration was dropping its opposition to Revolution Wind, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly provided a statement that included no mention of the project or the court ruling.

“In just a few months, President Trump has ended Joe Biden’s war on American energy and restored American energy dominance,” the statement read. “This means prioritizing the most effective and reliable tools to power our country, which includes following through on his promise to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ and unleash domestic oil, gas, and nuclear power — supporting thousands of good-paying energy jobs across the country.”

Revolution Wind was already 80% complete when the stop-work order was issued in August. All the foundations for the project’s massive turbines had been driven into the seafloor.

The Trump administration cited unspecified national security concerns as its rationale for halting the project. The project’s proponents said it had undergone extensive reviews during the years-long permitting process, which included approvals from the federal Department of Defense.

Revolution Wind’s developers, which include Danish energy company Ørsted, filed suit challenging the stop-work order in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Read the full article at CT Mirror

US judge weighs if Trump administration can lawfully halt wind projects

November 19, 2025 — A federal judge on Tuesday wrestled with whether President Donald Trump‘s administration had acted lawfully when it halted permitting of new wind projects nationwide.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, during a hearing in Boston in a lawsuit by 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, questioned whether federal agencies could lawfully implement the Trump-directed pause by “simply saying the president told me to do it.”

The U.S. Departments of Commerce and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency had all acted to implement a directive the president made on his first day back in office on January 20 to halt offshore wind lease sales and stop issuing permits, leases and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.

He issued that directive while also moving to ramp up the federal government’s support for the fossil fuel industry and maximize output in the United States, the world’s top oil and gas producer, after campaigning for the presidency on the refrain of “drill, baby, drill.”

Read the full article at Reuters

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island Energy breaks off contract with SouthCoast Wind amid federal uncertainty

November 17, 2025 — Rhode Island’s second attempt to grow its offshore wind portfolio is dead in the water.

Michael Dalo, a spokesperson for Rhode Island Energy, confirmed in an email to Rhode Island Current Friday morning that the company ended its negotiations with SouthCoast Wind to purchase power from the project.

The news comes more than a year after Rhode Island officials unveiled a tentative contract with SouthCoast Wind developers to buy 200 megawatts of electricity from the project planned south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Negotiations finalizing the deal stalled multiple times due to a series of setbacks by the Trump administration, including the pullback of a key federal permit for the project.

Dalo cited the federal uncertainty facing the offshore wind industry as reason for the cutoff of contract negotiations.

“After several [power purchase agreement] negotiation extensions and continued uncertainty in the offshore wind industry, we were unable to come to agreeable terms” Dalo said in his email. “We remain fully supportive of the offshore wind industry and look forward to future clean energy [sic] opportunities as the industry evolves.”

He did not immediately respond to follow-up questions including when the deal was officially cast aside. The latest deadline, Nov. 1, came and went with no public acknowledgement from either party on the status of the talks.

SouthCoast Wind also did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment on Friday.

Disappointing, but not surprising, was how Amanda Barker, the Rhode Island state committee lead for New England for Offshore Wind, characterized the news.

Read the full article at News From the States

NEW JERSEY: Long Delayed Jersey Shore Wind Farm Gets Scrapped

November 17, 2025 — Yet another offshore wind farm in New Jersey is being canceled by its developers.

Leading Light Wind, which already has been delayed twice and was pending a third delay request, will not be moving forward, an attorney for the project said in a letter to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

Colleen A. Foley, the attorney representing Leading Light Wind, wrote that the company “cannot move forward” under the terms the BPU set out. In the letter, the company withdrew their request for another delay.

Read the full article the Patch

VIRGINIA: Virginia’s 2.6 GW offshore wind project remains on schedule for late-2026 completion despite rising costs

November 13, 2025 — The US wind sector has faced some troubling times as of late, with US President Donald Trump rolling back permits and forcing wind operators to cancel planned projects. Despite that, Virginia’s 2.6 GW offshore wind project remains on track for a late-2026 completion date. The project is being developed by Dominion Energy and has been subject to some problems due to rising costs, but it remains on schedule. Virginia is set to become the home of the US wind sector once the project has been completed and is feeding clean, renewable energy to the millions of Virginia households.

Dominion has stated that the project will be the largest by capacity in the United States

The planned 2.6 GW offshore wind project will easily be the largest by capacity in the United States, once it has been completed. Dominion Energy is an exceedingly large energy company that provides electricity to over 3.6 million customers in Virginia and the Carolinas. Additionally, the firm also provides regulated natural gas services to about 500,000 customers in South Carolina.

Dominion’s quarterly performance for Q3 has been a sight for sore eyes in the American energy sector, boasting operating earnings of $921 million, which is significantly higher than the same period last year. In Q3, Dominion’s regulated electric sales rose 3.3% year over year, marking an important milestone in the company’s future in the United States.

Read the full article at Energies Media

Feds wade closer to mineral lease in US waters

November 11, 2025 — The Trump administration is inching closer to opening U.S. waters to the first mineral lease sale in decades amid booming industry interest and growing anxiety among environmental groups.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, on Monday said it has identified areas off the coast of American Samoa for a mineral lease, and is seeking information about holding a lease sale off the shores of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The step signals agencies are moving forward with reviewing activity tied to deep-sea mining in U.S. waters, right as companies line up for permission to plumb the ocean depths for minerals both in domestic and international waters.

Read the full article at E&E News

Offshore wind fight lining lawyers’ pockets

November 7, 2025 — With a lawsuit still in court, Ocean City continues to rack up legal bills in its fight against offshore wind, with more than $350,000 spent so far.

City Manager Terry McGean said the city has paid $332,815 in legal fees to its outside legal counsel, the Washington, D.C. firm Marzulla Law, which was hired last year to fight the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the US Wind project off Maryland’s coast. Another $24,372 has been paid to the city solicitor’s law firm, Ayres, Jenkins, Gordy & Almand.

“These are all paid from the city general fund,” he said.

Last year, the Town of Ocean City announced it had retained Marzulla Law – a firm known for its expertise in environmental and property rights litigation – to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Marine Fisheries Service, or BOEM. The lawsuit, which lists several co-plaintiffs, challenges the agency’s process for approving the US Wind project, which would involve the construction of 114 wind turbines starting roughly 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City.