Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: ‘You are our only chance’: Why fishermen are applauding Trump’s halt of Revolution Wind

August 27, 2025 — While Gov. Dan McKee and state elected leaders have roundly criticized the Trump administration’s order to stop work on Revolution Wind, members of the Rhode Island fishing industry are applauding the decision to halt construction of the 65-turbine offshore wind farm.

A handful of industry representatives gathered Tuesday, Aug. 26 on the Galilee waterfront to thank the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the stop-work order, and to urge the administration to take similar action against other offshore wind projects proposed or being built in Atlantic Ocean waters in the region.

“I have one thing to say to the U.S. government,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for North Kingstown-based seafood distributor Seafreeze. “Save our fishing grounds from offshore wind. All of them. You’ve started with Revolution Wind, and for that we are grateful. Now, go down the list because it’s long, and you are our only chance.”

Read the full article at The Newport Daily News

Democratic governors demand Trump resume offshore wind project near Rhode Island

August 26, 2025 — A nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut faces an uncertain future as the states’ Democratic governors, members of Congress and union workers are calling Monday for the Trump administration to let construction resume.

The administration halted construction on the Revolution Wind project last week, saying the federal government needs to review the project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Monday it’s not commenting further at this time.

Read the full article at PBS

Trump Administration Halts Work On Nearly Complete Revolution Wind. Could Vineyard Wind Be Next?

August 26, 2025 — The Trump administration has halted construction on Revolution Wind, a $4 billion, 65-turbine offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was approximately 80 percent complete.

It marked Trump’s latest salvo against the offshore wind industry, which has been targeted by his administration since he was inaugurated in January.

In a letter to Orsted, the Danish energy company that is building Revolution Wind, Trump’s acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Matthew Giacona stated that the order to halt construction was made “to allow time for it to address concerns that have arisen during the review that the Department is undertaking pursuant to the President’s Memorandum of January 20, 2025.”

Giacona was referring to Trump’s executive order, which he signed on his inauguration day, that halted any new federal leases for offshore wind projects and threatened to terminate or amend existing wind energy leases following a review by the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Giacona specified in his letter to Orsted that the stop work order was also implemented due to “national security concerns.”

Read the full article at Nantucket Current

CT officials, workers decry Trump administration’s halt to nearly completed offshore wind project

August 26, 2025 — Wind turbine pieces stood hundreds of feet tall above dozens of trade workers and Connecticut officials Monday, as they spoke out against the Trump administration’s sudden pause of Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm project. It was poised to soon provide electricity to at least 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

“This is a project that our grid operator was counting on to turn on at the end of next year,” Katie Dykes, commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said from the State Pier in New London.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Trump halts work on New England offshore wind project that’s nearly complete

August 25, 2025 — The Trump administration halted construction on a nearly complete offshore wind project near Rhode Island as the White House continues to attack the battered U.S. offshore wind industry that scientists say is crucial to the urgent fight against climate change.

Danish wind farm developer Orsted says the Revolution Wind project is about 80% complete, with 45 out of its 65 turbines already installed.

Despite that progress — and the fact that the project had cleared years of federal and state reviews — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the order Friday, saying the federal government needs to review the project and “address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States.”

It did not specify what the national security concerns are.

President Donald Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Trump recently called wind and solar power “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve wind or “farmer destroying Solar” projects. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social site this week.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Trump administration strikes at Revolution Wind project

August 25, 2025 — The Trump administration issued a stop-work order Friday on Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project, a 65-turbine, 704-megawatt array already almost complete off southern New England. The order followed an announcement Thursday that the administration will investigate “national security” issues around offshore wind power projects.

In a letter to Denmark-based Ørsted the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited national security as the reason for the agency’s sudden decision to review the project despite previous approvals under the Biden administration.

“Ørsted is evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,” including court action, the company said in a statement.

Revolution Wind, under construction off Rhode Island, has been vigorously opposed by the commercial fishing industry for its siting near Cox Ledge, an important habitat for cod. In 2023 fishermen’s fierce opposition led to the mass resignation of  the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Advisory Board, whose members charged the state Coastal Resource Management Council is too deferential to wind development interests at the expense of habitat and fisheries impacts.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Projects Make Headway

July 9, 2024 — Offshore wind energy projects continue to progress in the waters south of the Vineyard, with two new wind farms approved and construction starting on a third.

Revolution Wind reported “steel-in-the-water” in an area about 12 miles southwest of Aquinnah. This project was approved last August by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Headed by Orsted and Eversource, the wind farm is planned to have up to 65 turbines and generate power for Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The company estimated it would start operating the project in 2025. The turbines will be visible from Aquinnah and the town will receive mitigation money.

Revolution Wind will be joined by New England Wind and Sunrise Wind, a pair of projects that recently were approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

Offshore wind sparks new lawsuits

April 18, 2024 — A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and three other federal agencies for an offshore wind project off the coast of Rhode Island.

Non-partisan, Rhode Island-based Green Oceans has filed the lawsuit, claiming the bureau has broken the law by giving Danish energy company Orsted permits for their South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects.

Dr Lisa Quattrocki Knight, the president and co-founder of Green Oceans, said their lawsuit is about where these wind farms will be located — at Coxes Ledge off the Rhode Island coast.

“It is an incredibly biodiverse marine ecosystem that NOAA designated in November as a habitat of particular concern because it is one of the last remaining spawning grounds for southern New England Cod,” Quattrocki Knight said. “And is a winter foraging region for five endangered whale species. Nothing should ever have been developed on Coxes Ledge and yet they have gone ahead and permitted these two projects.”

Read the full story at WSHU

 

Revolution Wind Facing Legal Turbulence

April 14, 2024 — As Danish Energy developer Ørsted is preparing to start work on its Revolution Wind offshore energy farm, a lawsuit may create problems before construction can get underway for the 65-turbine project that is expected to power homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The agency that granted Ørsted the permit for the project, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is being challenged in federal district court by two Rhode Island non-profits, The Preservation Society of Newport County and The Southeast Lighthouse Foundation, who claim the agency is flouting the law and ignoring the rights of historic organizations as well as indigenous tribes. The nonprofits also claim that the turbines will spoil the uncluttered view of the ocean for residents and tourists and as such threaten their communities’ livelihoods.

In November 2023 the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners filed lawsuits against BOEM for both South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind (appeals one and two), alleging that BOEM ignored the National Historic Preservation Act, which was legislation intended to preserve historic and archaeological sites in the United States. The act created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Offices.

The lawsuits also allege that the BOEM ignored The National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.

Read the full article at CT News Junkie

U.S. gives final nod to Rhode Island’s $1.5 billion offshore wind farm

December 8, 2023 — The U.S Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council on Thursday approved the construction of a $1.5 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.

The project, Revolution Wind, is run by Danish company Orsted and U.S.-based Eversource, and would bring a total of 704 megawatts (MW) clean energy to Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Another offshore project by the two wind energy developers, the South Fork wind farm off the coast of New York, delivered its first power to the state’s power grid on Wednesday.

Read the full story at CNBC