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As the federal government targets offshore wind, leaders gather in Virginia Beach to discuss industry’s future

May 1, 2025 — Local, national and international leaders in offshore wind have gathered in Virginia Beach this week to discuss how to keep pushing the industry forward.

The International Partnering Forum, hosted by the Oceantic Network, is promoting the far-reaching offshore wind supply chain and celebrating ongoing projects.

That includes Dominion Energy’s 176-turbine wind farm under construction just a few dozen miles away off the coast, which will be the nation’s largest.

“We are positioning Virginia Beach to become one of the main offshore wind energy hubs in this nation,” said Mayor Bobby Dyer. The city is “taking steps to work with other regions and nations to ensure this future success.”

But uncertainty and strong challenges loomed large, as officials frankly discussed President Donald Trump’s efforts to halt offshore wind.

Read the full story at WHRO

Burgum leans away from ‘all-of-the-above’ energy

April 29, 2025 — When he fought for votes in North Dakota’s Republican gubernatorial primary in 2016, tech executive Doug Burgum did not have the financial backing of the state’s powerful oil and gas lobby.

Burgum — who is now Interior secretary — labeled that money a conflict of interest.

As governor, Burgum sought to push North Dakota to be carbon-neutral by 2030. He stressed “the importance of an all-of-the-above energy policy” when then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited the state in 2021. And he chaired a state commission that approved North Dakota’s first injection well for the geologic storage of carbon dioxide.

But as a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Burgum has taken a sharply different tack.

Last week, the Interior Department unveiled a plan to speed up the development of domestic energy and critical minerals. The new emergency permitting procedures don’t apply to renewable sources such as wind and solar, reflecting Trump’s priorities and his Jan. 20 energy “emergency” executive order. Carbon capture and storage technology, or CCS, was also left out.

The new policy arrived days after Interior moved to halt construction on the Empire Wind project off the coast of New York, arguing it was approved “without sufficient analysis.” That has left observers wondering what’s next from Burgum.

Read the full story at E&E News

‘Repowering’ era for America’s aging wind energy industry begins, despite Trump’s effort to kill it

April 28, 2025 — On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order indefinitely halting permits for new onshore wind energy projects on federal land, as well as new leases for offshore wind farms in U.S. coastal waters. The action not only fulfilled Trump’s “no new windmills” campaign pledge, but struck yet another blow to the wind industry, which has been hit hard over the past few years by supply chain snags, price increases upending project economics, public opposition and political backlash against federal tax credits, especially those spurring the fledgling offshore wind sector.

Nonetheless, the nation’s well-established onshore wind industry, built out over several decades, is generating nearly 11% of America’s electricity, making it the largest source of renewable energy and at times last year exceeding coal-fired generation. On April 8, the fossil-fuels-friendly Trump administration took measures to bolster coal mining and power plants, but as the infrastructure driving wind energy ages, efforts to “repower” it are creating new business opportunities for the industry’s key players.

This repowering activity has emerged as a bright spot for the wind industry, giving a much-needed boost to market leaders GE Vernova, Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, a subsidiary of Munich-based Siemens Energy. Following several challenging years of lackluster performance — due in particular to setbacks in both onshore and offshore projects — all three companies reported revenue increases in 2024, and both GE Vernova and Siemens stock have moved higher.

Read the full story at CNBC

RWE is Latest to Stop U.S. Offshore Wind Activities

April 28, 2025 — German renewable energy giant RWE is set to announce that it has stopped its offshore activities in the United States and setting higher requirements for future investments because of the “political developments.” The company follows TotalEnergies, Shell, and BP which previously announced they were backing away from projects in the U.S., and Equinor which last week said it is considering “legal remedies” after Trump’s Department of Energy suspending offshore work on a full-permitted wind farm off New York.

RWE released a manuscript of the speech Dr. Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE, will deliver next week, April 30, during the company’s annual meeting. In the speech, he will highlight the company’s many successes in 2024 and the progress being made on the Sofia wind farm for the UK and with the Danish wind farm Thor. He notes RWE has a combined offshore wind farm capacity currently of 3.3 GW and a further four projects with a capacity of 4.4 GW under construction.

Turning to the U.S. market environment, Krebber will tell shareholders, “We have stopped our offshore activities for the time being,” while the company has also introduced “higher requirements for future investments in the U.S.” He says despite the company’s success with onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage, “Nevertheless, we remain cautious given the political developments.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Interior won’t release evidence for blocked NY wind farm

April 23, 2025 — The Interior Department says it stopped work on a New York offshore wind farm because the project’s permit was based on “bad & flawed science.”

It has yet to produce that science.

Interior has offered little explanation for its decision last week to halt work on Empire Wind. Its public statements have been limited to a pair of social media posts by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who initially announced the decision on X last week and followed up with a post Monday saying the move was based on findings from NOAA.

Read the full story at E&E News

Offshore opponents urge Supreme Court to grant Vineyard Wind challenge

April 22, 2025 — Advocacy groups opposed to offshore wind development are calling for the Supreme Court to consider how federal approval of a project off the coast of Massachusetts could be violating recent high court decisions curbing agency authority.

The America First Policy Institute and others recently filed “friend of the court” briefs backing a pair of petitions led by the fishing company Seafreeze Shoreside and the fishing industry trade group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) seeking to block completion of the Vineyard Wind 1 project.

The briefs are backing the parallel claims before the court: that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management overstepped its authority and that lower courts failed to properly review the agency’s decision after a Supreme Court decision limited courts’ deference to agency decision-making.

Read the full story at E&E News

Nantucket anti-wind group petitions feds to halt Vineyard Wind 1

April 21, 2025 — After the Trump administration suspended the Empire Wind offshore energy project over claims of rushed approvals and inadequate analysis, Nantucket nonprofit ACK For Whales is urging federal regulators to take similar action against Vineyard Wind.

The group is calling for Vineyard Wind’s revised construction plan to be revoked due to unresolved safety and environmental concerns.

The island nonprofit, which opposes offshore wind development, has formally petitioned the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to rescind the construction and operations plan for Vineyard Wind 1.

The revised plan was approved Jan. 17, 2025, following a major turbine blade failure and the discovery of potential manufacturing defects affecting as many as 66 blades.

Read the full story at MassLive.com

Trump administration issues order to stop construction on New York offshore wind project

April 17, 2025 — The Trump administration issued an order Wednesday to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully-permitted project. He said it needs further review because it appears the Biden administration rushed the approval.

The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind to start providing power in 2026. Equinor finalized the federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in President Donald Trump’s first term. BOEM approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and construction began that year.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Trump Admin Halts New York Offshore Wind Project, Orders Review of All Existing Biden-Era Wind Permits

April 16, 2025 — The Trump administration is halting construction of a massive offshore wind project being built in federal waters off the coast of New York and ordering a sprawling review of existing offshore wind permits, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday to order foreign energy developer Equinor to cease all construction activities on its Empire Wind project, according to a memorandum obtained by the Free Beacon. Burgum said the Biden administration green-lit permits for the project and ultimately approved it without conducting proper analysis.

“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote. He said the halt on Empire Wind will be in effect indefinitely until further review is completed to “address these serious deficiencies.”

Burgum additionally ordered Interior Department staff to continue a review of federal wind permitting practices related to both existing and pending permits and approvals.

Read the full article at The Washington Free Beacon  

RHODE ISLAND: Can a Local RI Fishing Panel Make a Difference in Offshore Wind Projects? We’re About to Find Out

April 15, 2025 — When the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) put out a public call for volunteers to revive a state fishing advisory panel, a former panel member warned Jim Riggs against joining.

Riggs, a 75-year-old recreational fisherman and retired electrician who lives in Westerly, applied anyway.

“I feel that in order to have your voice heard when it comes to fisheries management, you’re either on the table or on the plate,” Riggs said in an interview. “I prefer to be at the table.”

His seat at the table is now secured; he is one of nine new members the CRMC named to its Fishermen’s Advisory Board (FAB) after a single, unanimous vote on April 8. The advisory panel has been inactive since all of its former members resigned together in August 2023 to protest what they viewed as the CRMC’s kowtowing to offshore wind project developers at the expense of local fishermen.

Will the same frustrations bubble up? The first test comes this week, as the new panel begins negotiations with SouthCoast Wind, which has applied for a permit to run transmission lines from its wind turbines up the Sakonnet River and out Mount Hope Bay.

Rich Hittinger, a former FAB member who led the mass resignation effort two years ago, isn’t optimistic.

“We were asked to review a lot of applications and give input that took a lot of time and effort, but then the council really did not care what our input was,” said Hittinger, who is first vice chair of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association.

He had discouraged Riggs from joining the panel.

Read the full article at the Rhode Island Current