Offshore wind Archives - Page 28 of 246

Wind opponents sue Trump administration to block New York wind project

June 4, 2025 — Fishing companies and offshore wind opponents filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course and allow construction to resume on Empire Wind, a $5 billion wind farm project off New York’s coast.

Protect Our Coast New Jersey, Clean Ocean Action, ACK for Whales and 12 fishing industry participants in a lawsuit, filed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, sought to reinstate a stop work order Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued in April halting construction of Equinor’s wind project.

Burgum issued that order after Republican President Donald Trump on his first day back in office on January 20 directed his administration to halt offshore wind lease sales and stop the issuance of permits, leases and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.

He did so while also moving to ramp up the federal government’s support for the fossil fuel industry and maximize output in the United States. Trump as a candidate last year promised to end the offshore wind industry.

Read the full article at Reuters

Empire Wind opponents sue Trump administration, Equinor to stop work again

June 3, 2025 — Two weeks after the Trump administration abruptly allowed the Empire Wind project to resume, a coalition of project opponents and commercial fishermen filed a new federal lawsuit June 3 calling for the Department of Interior to block the project again.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum – who imposed a stop-work order on Equinor’s project off New York April 16, then lifted it in mid-May – is named among as a defendant along with Equinor and the government of Norway, as a majority shareholder of the energy company.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Can a bipartisan offshore wind caucus survive Trump?

June 3, 2025 — Republican support for offshore wind has flatlined across the federal government, but Capitol Hill’s only bipartisan caucus dedicated to the energy source is hoping to reverse that trend.

The House Offshore Wind Caucus, created in 2022, was pitched as a way to find bipartisan solutions to address the industry’s challenges and create policies to spur further growth of the renewable energy source.

It’s main leader, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), said in a recent interview that the caucus will remain active in the coming year to achieve those goals.

Read the full article at E&E News

Gay Head Tribe Sues Over Offshore Wind Farm

June 3, 2025 — The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) joined a lawsuit last week that is attempting to nullify the approvals of a large offshore wind energy project off the Vineyard’s shores.

The tribe, along with several Nantucket residents, fishermen groups and the ACK for Whales nonprofit, filed the suit in federal district court in Washington, D.C., claiming that several federal government agencies did not take enough into consideration when they greenlit the New England 1 and 2 projects.

The tribe and other plaintiffs argue that the approvals violate the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other laws around historic preservation.

“Like all the other plaintiffs, we as individual tribal members and our tribe as a whole are being harmed by these giant wind farms, making an industrial park out of our waters,” said Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, the tribal council chairwoman. “However unlike the other plaintiffs, the negative impacts to us go back as far as time immemorial and as deep as to who we are as Aquinnah Wampanoag people; harming our culture, traditions and spirituality, which connects us to the lands, waters, sky and all living things. Since individually we weren’t being listened to, we hope that maybe now with this lawsuit our collective voices will be heard.”

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

Save LBI Opposes New Jersey’s Suit Against Trump Offshore Wind Order

May 29, 2025 — A local grassroots organization is asking the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts to reject a lawsuit challenging President Donald J. Trump’s wind-energy directive brought against his administration earlier this month by multiple states, including New Jersey.

Saying Trump’s directive does not violate any environmental statute and falls within the president’s supervisory authority laid out in the U.S. Constitution, Save LBI filed an amicus curiae brief (literally, friend of the court), the nonprofit said in a May 22 statement.

“While demonstrating that the state’s plaintiffs have no legal leg to stand on, Save LBI’s amicus brief also illuminates how recent sharp increases in marine mammal mortalities are attributable to offshore wind vessel survey activities,” said Bob Stern, president and co-founder of Save LBI. “… (It) shows that the serious harm foundation pile driving and long-term operation of wind turbines have on marine mammals far outweighs the minuscule benefits of these projects.”

In its filing, the bipartisan group of Long Beach Island residents and business owners also note no final agency action has taken to date that would justify court intervention, and the appropriate agencies retain lawful discretion to pause or reassess permitting decisions at any stage pending additional review under the law.

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

Questions of transparency swirl around Vineyard Wind

May 27, 2025 — Just a fraction of Vineyard Wind’s planned offshore wind turbines are in operation despite nearly three years of construction, and the company is staying silent on what is slowing production down and when it’ll actually finish the project.

First reported by the State House News Service, Vineyard Wind 1 — an offshore wind farm 15 miles south of the Island — only has four turbines providing power to the grid, which the Times confirmed with state officials. But that is one less than what was reported in February of 2024, and Vineyard Wind is well past a goal of being fully operational by mid-2024. Avangrid, the project’s parent company, made the prediction during a boat tour of the construction site in 2023.

Now, it is uncertain when construction will finish.

Craig Gilvarg, Vineyard Wind spokesperson, declined to comment after multiple attempts to reach him.

Read the full article at MV Times

Watermen reject negotiated US Wind relief package

May 23, 2025 — Watermen in Worcester County say they don’t want a penny out of a proposed $20 million relief package from an offshore wind farm developer.

“The (Department of Natural Resources) asked us for input, and we’re not negotiating our livelihood. That’s our life. We’re not going to make an agreement to put ourselves out of business,” said Jeanene Gwin, vice president of the Waterman’s Association of Worcester County.

Watermen are rejecting the agreement inked last week between offshore wind developer US Wind and environmental officials in Maryland and Delaware, one that aims to compensate the fishing community for negative effects of a proposed wind farm to be located about 11 miles off Ocean City’s shoreline.

According to the MOU, which is a public document, US Wind promises to create a $20 million relief fund for fishermen whose businesses would be harmed not only by the 114-turbine wind farm, but also the accompanying operations and maintenance facility to be built in the West Ocean City commercial fishing harbor.

Millions would be set aside incrementally for each years-long phase of the project – construction, operations, and eventual decommissioning. The dollar amount goes “above and beyond what is required by” federal agencies, US Wind said in a May 14 statement.

“This proposal – one of the biggest investments in commercial fishing in the region – demonstrates our commitment to the fishing industry and the local community in which we’ll operate,” said US Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski.

Read the full article at the OC Today-Dispatch

US Wind proposes USD 20 million in compensation funds for commercial fishers in Maryland, Delaware

May 22, 2025 — US Wind has agreed to provide USD 20 million (EUR 17.8 million) in compensation to commercial fishers and related businesses in the U.S. states of Maryland or Delaware who have been impacted by the development of wind power off the coast of Maryland.

In 2014, US Wind secured an 80,000-acre federal lease area in the Atlantic Ocean, with plans to build a wind energy facility just over 11 miles off the shores of Ocean City, Maryland. As part of securing a lease, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) determined that wind energy developers must compensate the commercial fishing sector for any potential lost revenue caused by construction.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Developer to resume NY offshore wind project after Trump administration lifts pause

May 21, 2025 — The Trump administration is allowing work on a major offshore wind project for New York to resume.

The developer, the Norwegian energy company Equinor, said Monday it was told by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that a stop-work order has been lifted for the Empire Wind project, allowing construction to resume.

Work has been paused since Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last month directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction and review the permits. Burgum said at the time that it appeared former President Joe Biden’s administration had “rushed through” the approvals. Equinor spent seven years obtaining permits and has spent more than $2.5 billion so far on a project that is one-third complete.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Trump officials allow massive New York offshore wind project to restart

May 21, 2025 — The Trump administration lifted the stop-work order on a major wind farm off the coast of New York on Monday, according to a statement by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), following direct appeals she made to the president.

“After countless conversations with [wind project developer] Equinor and White House officials, bringing labor and business to the table to emphasize the importance of this project, I’m pleased that President Trump and Secretary Burgum have agreed to lift the stop work order and allow this project to move forward,” she said.

The reversal comes after intense efforts to lobby the Trump administration by Hochul and the Norwegian energy company building the Empire Wind project. Equinor Renewable Americas President Molly Morris had said last week that the company would be forced to cancel the project within days if there was no sign from the administration of a possible resolution.

Hochul had three roughly one-hour calls with President Donald Trump, the most recent on Sunday, asking for the stop-work order to be rescinded, according to a person familiar with the matter. In the calls, she emphasized the need for projects that bring more energy to New York, while highlighting the number of jobs Empire Wind would create.

Read the full article at The Washington Post