April 28, 2026 — U.S. lawmakers are pushing to attach several seafood amendments to the forthcoming Farm Bill renewal as part of an ongoing effort to grow the seafood industry’s presence within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“We urge Members of the House to support these amendments and deliver a Farm Bill that recognizes America’s commercial fishing families as the food producers they are,” Southern Shrimp Alliance Director Blake Price said in a release.
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.
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.
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.
April 24, 2026 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick commented on a handful of fisheries issues under questioning by lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee during an 22 April hearing.
Senators demanded answers from the Trump administration official on regulations surrounding Maine lobster, the backlog of fishery disaster determination requests, and NOAA Fisheries’ capacity to conduct surveys in the face of budget and staffing cuts during a hearing ostensibly about the Department of Commerce’s fiscal year 2027 budget.
Read the full article at SeafoodSource
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.
April 22, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to restructure global trade – and his inability to do so cleanly and consistently – has created uncertainty in the seafood sector and hurt trade between the U.S. and the E.U., according to seafood industry stakeholders speaking at a panel at the 2026 Seafood Expo Global (SEG).
“No matter what you think of the policy overall, the up and down nature of it and the uncertainty that that generates is crippling for businesses that I represent, and I think for even domestic U.S. producers it creates uncertainty and doubt,” National Fisheries Institute Executive Vice President for Government Affairs and General Counsel Robert DeHaan said. “It’s harder to innovate. It’s harder to expand your payroll. It’s harder to know what’s going to happen in six [or] nine months. This sector of farmed and wild [fish] is very tough in good conditions, and introducing this level of uncertainty about the policy execution process creates uncertainty and makes the U.S. market less appealing.”
April 16, 2026 – The following was released by the National Fisheries Institutes:
From its fundamental role in the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and its investment in aquaculture and invasive species protection to its inclusion of fish in nutrition programs, the Department of Agriculture has long supported the production and consumption of commercial seafood.
With today’s announcement of the Office of Seafood, we look forward to expanding that work and developing a fuller partnership with USDA. From bait to plate and pond to processor there are many facets of this industry that can benefit from the Department’s expertise in feeding Americans and assisting American businesses that produce food. Seafood can have a necessarily complex value chain that is proud to feature iconic American fisheries and globally sourced raw material processed and distributed here in order to provide American families the healthiest animal protein on the planet.
We thank Secretary Rollins and the Trump Administration for this critical step to improve the health of both Americans and the seafood industry.
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.
April 15, 2026 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it will launch the first phase of its tariff refund process on 20 April.
CBP’s latest message said it will initiate the first phase of the “Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE)” tool in its “Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data Portal (ACE Portal).” The agency said CAPE will simplify duty refunds by giving businesses an electronic path to submit tariff refunds.