Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Dominion to open nation’s biggest offshore wind farm next year

May 4, 2026 — The largest offshore wind project under construction in the U.S. has nine turbines in the water and is on track to begin operating next year.

The update by Dominion Energy on its sprawling project called Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind came as the utility reported strong growth in power demand from data centers. Company executives also expressed enthusiasm in Virginia’s new energy storage targets and said the utility had submitted a bid to extend a long-term power contract for its nuclear power plant in Connecticut.

But the offshore wind project headlined Dominion’s financial update with analysts Friday. The Trump administration temporarily halted construction of the 2,600-megawatt project late last year. Construction resumed in January after Dominion successfully sued the government. The project’s first turbine began spinning in March.

Read the full article at E&E News

Court Says Sunrise Wind Can Resume

May 4, 2026 — President Trump’s effort to kill the nascent offshore wind industry is starting to resemble his fruitless effort to overturn his re-election loss in 2020, as a federal judge on Monday handed him a fifth consecutive loss in court challenges to the administration’s December order pausing construction of five wind farms along the East Coast.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the preliminary injunction sought by Sunrise Wind L.L.C., regarding the suspension order issued by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The move allows the construction of Sunrise Wind in federal waters about 30 miles east of Montauk Point to resume immediately while the underlying lawsuit challenging the administration’s order progresses.

The 924-megawatt wind farm’s export cable is to make landfall at Smith Point County Park in Shirley and is to generate electricity sufficient to power nearly 600,000 residences.

“Sunrise Wind will determine how it may be possible to work with the U.S. administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution,” a statement from Orsted, the developer, reads. “With safety as the top priority, the project will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible to deliver affordable, reliable power to the State of New York.”

Read the full article at the East Hampton Star

Trump pays more offshore wind farm developers to switch to fossil fuel production

May 1, 2026 — Despite his struggles with the courts, U.S. President Donald Trump is continuing his push to block offshore wind power development with all the tools at his disposal – including buying out the developers.

Trump has made blocking offshore wind projects a priority during his second term, immediately issuing an executive order pausing federal approval of wind projects on the Outer Continental Shelf after resuming office in January 2025. He followed up that order by issuing stop work orders for two of the larger wind farms developments on the East Coast, although those orders were ultimately rescinded.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump administration to pay 2 more companies to walk away from US offshore wind leases

April 28, 2026 — The Trump administration announced two more payouts Monday for energy companies to walk away from U.S. offshore wind projects under development.

Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind have agreed to end their offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million. Both companies have decided not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the United States, the Interior Department announced Monday.

Bluepoint Wind is an offshore wind project in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York, while Golden State Wind is a floating offshore wind project proposed off California’s central coast.

Interior said it’s following the model of its recent deal with the French energy company TotalEnergies, which is getting a $1 billion payout to walk away from projects off the coasts of North Carolina and New York. TotalEnergies agreed in March to what’s essentially a refund of its leases, and will invest the money in fossil fuel projects instead.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

New Jersey ratepayers are on the hook for canceled projects amid Trump’s war on wind

April 27, 2026 — New Jersey ratepayers will foot the bill for unfinished construction as the state abandons massive offshore wind energy plans as a result of President Donald Trump’s attacks on the industry.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) on Wednesday officially ended an agreement with grid operator PJM to create infrastructure for offshore wind farms that have no future after Trump’s policy changes.

Brian Lipman, director of the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, which serves as a public advocate for ratepayers, said in an interview that ratepayers will be on the hook for reimbursing companies that began construction for projects to prepare the grid for offshore wind energy. He said the price tag could be between $400 million and $500 million.

“My intention is to fight it. I just don’t know how successful I’ll be,” he said.

The BPU argues its decision is saving money for New Jerseyans since the price tag of actually completing the projects would have been much higher. The board’s commissioners blame the Trump administration for the downfall of the offshore wind industry in the state.

Trump has long detested offshore wind, and in January, Trump signed an executive order pausing federal leases for wind projects — which are required for offshore construction — though federal courts rejected his efforts to stop projects underway.

But the damage had already been done in Jersey, where offshore wind projects were still in their early stages, said Allison McLeod, the interim executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.

“Here, it just made the environment really difficult for offshore wind to proceed because we were not at the stage of any projects that were delivering power,” she said.

Read the full article at The Philadelphia Inquirer 

Another offshore wind firm is seeking a payout as Trump stifles sector

April 27, 2026 — A second French energy firm is pursuing a refund on its U.S. offshore wind leases — and analysts say the trend could spread further, despite major legal questions about the Trump administration’s approach.

Engie, which had been planning three U.S. projects, is in talks with the administration about forfeiting the company’s offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursement. Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor disclosed the development on April 21, a month after the French oil giant TotalEnergies struck a similar deal for nearly $1 billion with the U.S. Department of the Interior.

“Discussions are ongoing, and we’ll see if an agreement is possible,” MacGregor told reporters at a press meeting in Paris.

“Economically and also in terms of public acceptance, I strongly believe in offshore wind power,” she added. However, ​“One must be able to say that energy policy is stable enough whatever the political color of the government” to continue investing in the clean energy resource.

Read the full article at Canary Media

Offshore wind farms take shape along Rhode Island’s coast, even as Trump wants to stop them

April 24, 2026 — Offshore wind turbines roughly three times the height of the Statue of Liberty were spinning far off the coast of Rhode Island on Thursday, sending clean electricity to the region.

Wind farms are taking shape and operating along the East Coast, even as President Donald Trump seeks to end the U.S. offshore wind industry. He often talks about his hatred of wind power and calls turbines ugly.

The Associated Press traveled roughly 100 miles (161 kilometers) and saw three of the five wind farms in the area. Two of the five are fully operational, two are nearly done, and one is about halfway built.

The first turbines from the Revolution Wind project were clearly visible from about 5 nautical miles away, and can be seen from farther away on clear days. They stretched across the horizon, massive structures evenly spaced in rows, some spinning in the light winds.

Read the full article at WPRI

U.S. is Negotiating to Cancel More Offshore Wind Leases

April 22, 2026 — Executives at the French company Engie confirmed today that they are in discussions with U.S. officials about possibly canceling their offshore wind farm leases. Last month, the administration agreed to reimburse TotalEnergies for its offshore wind leases and hinted it might use the same technique with others, although advocates and lawmakers are questioning the legal authority.

The Trump administration said in March that it had agreed to reimburse TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion it had paid to acquire a large lease in the New York Bight, which was to host two large wind farms, as well as a small property off North Carolina. The administration called it a win, saying the company had agreed to reinvest the money in the U.S. LNG sector, where it has a project underway.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Offshore wind triumphs over Trump in court, but future projects face delays

April 15, 2026 — The five East Coast offshore wind projects that recently won court victories over the Trump administration have restarted construction, but they make up just a small fraction of Atlantic states’ ambitious plans for offshore wind. And the dozens of projects that have yet to start construction have little chance of advancing while President Donald Trump remains in office.

“If you were going to make the best estimate of what’s going to happen, it would be that no other projects other than these five are going to move forward over the next three years,” said Warren Leon, executive director of the Clean Energy States Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of state energy agencies.

State leaders have been relying on these projects to underpin their transitions to clean electricity and to meet their growing energy needs, largely driven by data centers and artificial intelligence. But Trump’s hostility toward offshore wind has shown the political vulnerability of an industry that operates in federal waters and relies on the government as a landlord.

Trump has opposed offshore wind for years, making false claims that it harms whales, is unreliable and drives up energy costs. He seems to have adopted that stance following the construction of an offshore wind farm near his golf course in Scotland, viewing the turbines as an eyesore.

Read the full article at NC Newsline

Vineyard Wind Sues Turbine Manufacturer To Stop It From Backing Out Of Wind Farm; $4.5 Billion Project In Jeopardy

April 13, 2026 — Vineyard Wind has completed construction of the 62-turbine wind farm southwest of Nantucket, but the future of the project appears to be very much in jeopardy.

Vineyard Wind is suing GE Renewables, the manufacturer of its turbines, to block the company from backing out of the project. Without its partner, Vineyard Wind stated in its lawsuit that the entire $4.5 billion offshore wind project is imperiled.

“GER (GE Renewables) walking away threatens the project’s very survival,” Vineyard Wind’s attorneys wrote in a filing submitted this week to the Suffolk Superior Court. The project’s failure would “leave behind a dormant wind farm graveyard. There is no viable replacement.”

The lawsuit was prompted by GE Renewables (GER) sending a termination notice to Vineyard Wind on February 27, claiming the offshore wind developer had failed to cover more than $300 million in unpaid bills. Terminating those agreements would leave Vineyard Wind unable to operate and maintain its turbines, which run on GE Renewables’ proprietary designs, technology, and software, according to the legal filing.

“Only GER is able to perform the remaining work necessary to bring the performance of the GER turbines up to the capacity and reliability standards required for Vineyard Wind to supply power to Massachusetts consumers,” the offshore wind developer stated in the lawsuit. “Even if it were doable, however, it will be virtually impossible to find a turbine supplier that would be willing to take GER’s place.”

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current