Saving Seafood

Trump administration halts under-construction Revolution Wind project

August 27, 2025 — The Trump administration has taken another big swipe at the offshore wind industry, issuing a stop work order on Friday afternoon on Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, which as of this month was well under construction and 80% complete.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited “concerns that have arisen” during the project-wide review ordered by President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 wind memo, as well as national security concerns.

“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas,” wrote BOEM Acting Director Matthew Giacona in the two-page order.

Less than one year ago, the agency signed a memorandum of understanding with the Defense Department, formalizing collaboration between the agencies to ensure that lease areas and project plans will “strengthen the nation’s energy security in ways that are compatible with military operations.”

In a statement, Orsted said it is “evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously. This includes engagement with relevant permitting agencies for any necessary clarification or resolution as well as through potential legal proceedings, with the aim being to proceed with continued project construction towards … the second half of 2026.”

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

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

VIRGINIA: US government halts nearly complete offshore wind farm. Is Virginia’s next?

August 27, 2025 — After the Trump administration has ordered a halt to construction of a nearly complete $4 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Dominion Energy’s $10.9 billion  project off the coast of Virginia Beach could be in similar peril.

On Aug. 22, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management stopped Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, which already has 45 of 65 turbines installed, along with all underwater foundations. Citing a January memorandum by , BOEM told Orsted North America to “halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind Project” while the federal government reviews potential national security concerns.

Read the full article at Virginia Business 

With Little Explanation, Trump Throws Wind Industry Into Chaos

August 26, 2025 — When the Trump administration ordered that construction stop last week at Revolution Wind, a giant wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was nearly finished, it alluded vaguely to national security concerns but did not offer any further explanation.

It’s becoming a striking pattern.

The order was the third time the Trump administration had revoked permits or halted work on wind farms that had already received federal approval while offering little legal justification for doing so, following actions against wind projects in New York and Idaho. Legal experts say that there is little basis for blocking projects that have already received permits.

The Trump administration has signaled in a court filing that it next plans to rescind federal approvals for yet another wind farm, the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which had not yet begun construction but would consist of up to 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md. The filing was first reported by WBOC.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Trump administration plans to cancel approval of Maryland offshore wind project

August 26, 2025 — The Trump administration intends to withdraw federal approval for US Wind’s wind farm off the coast of Maryland, according to a document filed in federal court on Friday.

In the filing, in U.S. District Court in Delaware, attorneys from the Department of Justice asked the court to stay a lawsuit by a Delaware homeowner challenging the Interior Department’s approval last year of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project.

The action is the latest in a series of moves the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has made to stymie development of offshore wind and other clean energy facilities.

The Biden administration approved the US Wind project in September of last year. It was expected to one day produce enough power for 718,000 homes.

The Trump administration, by September 12, will move in a separate lawsuit brought by officials in Ocean City, Maryland to vacate approval of the facility’s construction and operations plan, the filing said. That lawsuit is pending in federal court in Maryland.

Read the full article at Reuters

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

New legislation curtails offshore wind development in New Hampshire

August 18, 2025 —  New Hampshire’s Office of Offshore Wind Industry Development and Energy Innovation is losing a few words from its title. Now, it’s simply called the Office of Energy Innovation.

The name change announces an erasure of state resources once aimed at boosting offshore wind in the state. A new law signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte earlier this month eliminated most, if not all, of the language that required the office to specifically support offshore wind development.

Republican Rep. J.D. Bernardy, a sponsor of the bill, said the office will continue to remain updated on offshore wind possibilities, but the energy source will no longer be “driving [the office] forward.”

“They can look at hydrogen, they can look at battery opportunities,” Bernardy added. “It’s a full spectrum of all the various evolving energy sources that are potentially out there.”

The new law also shuts down two related state groups focused on workforce training and economic development. It’s a contrast from Gov. Chris Sununu’s administration, which had established and funded these offices in 2021, and it comes on the heels of the Trump administration rolling back support for offshore wind development by suspending new leases and rescinding funding for federal offices that would have supported those projects.

Read the full article at nhpr

Expanded commercial fishing eyed in Pacific marine monuments

August 15, 2025 — Opening marine monuments to commercial fishing may prove more challenging than President Donald Trump thought when he proclaimed in April he was “unleashing American commercial fishing” in the Pacific Ocean.

A federal court in Hawaii ruled last week that the president cannot reinstate fishing by executive fiat but must use the standard regulatory review and public comment process before allowing about 160 fishermen licensed to harvest tuna, mahi-mahi and wahoo access to roughly 256 million surface acres of ocean in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

The ruling effectively stayed NOAA’s action to implement Trump’s April 27 proclamation rolling back the commercial fishing ban across roughly 400,000 square miles of the Pacific Islands monument about 900 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Read the full article at E&E News