Saving Seafood

‘Specific’ Revolution Wind national security risks remain classified in court documents

January 12, 2026 — A recent federal analysis revealed new and specific national security risks posed by offshore wind, including Rhode Island’s nearly completed Revolution Wind project,  according to the Trump administration.

But, it’s classified.

Federal regulators, and the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys representing them in court, offered little explanation for the abrupt suspension of five East Coast wind projects, including Revolution Wind, in court filings submitted Thursday. The tranche of documents, spanning 160 pages, defends the Interior Department’s Dec. 22 stop work order, which is being challenged by the Revolution Wind project developers, along with the companies behind three of the four other projects. The companies have each turned to federal courts to attempt to bar the Trump administration from interfering in their projects, claiming the 90-day suspension is an executive overreach that violates constitutional separation of powers, among other laws.

For the 65-turbine Revolution Wind project already 87% complete south of Rhode Island’s coastline, the late December halt to construction was especially harmful. The 704-megawatt project already endured a monthlong pause from August to September when federal regulators first sought to stop work under the guise of national security concerns.

The initial stop work order was temporarily tossed by U.S. Senior Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Lamberth is scheduled to consider the second request for a preliminary injunction from the Revolution Wind developers, joined by the Rhode Island and Connecticut AGs, on Monday.

Read the full article at the Rhode Island Current

New York attorney general sues Trump administration over offshore wind project freeze

January 12, 2026 — New York’s attorney general sued the Trump administration on Friday over its decision to halt two major offshore wind projects expected to power more than 1 million homes in the state.

State Attorney General Letitia James said in legal challenges filed in federal court in Washington that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Dec. 22 order suspending construction on the projects off Long Island, citing national security concerns, was arbitrary and unwarranted.

The Democrat said Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind projects had already cleared more than a decade of security and safety reviews by federal, state and local authorities. She said pausing them now threatens New York’s economy and energy grid, and she asked the court to intervene.

“New Yorkers deserve clean, reliable energy, good-paying jobs, and a government that follows the law,” James said in a statement. “This reckless decision puts workers, families, and our climate goals at risk.”

Read the full article at the the Associated Press

US House passes legislation funding NOAA Fisheries for fiscal year 2026

January 9, 2026 — The U.S. House has voted to pass appropriations legislation funding the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior for the remainder of fiscal year 2026.

“Today, the House took another step forward in advancing three more FY26 appropriations bills to President Trump’s desk,” U.S. Representative Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said after the vote. “Through bipartisan, committee-led consensus, we are delivering full-year measures that spend less than current funding, implement critical priorities for our districts, and continue to advance the America First agenda. This was not by accident – it is the result of ending bloated omnibuses, empowering members, and doing the hard work Article I of the Constitution demands.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump’s offshore wind project freeze draws lawsuits from states and developers

January 8, 2026 — Offshore wind developers affected by the Trump administration’s freeze of five big projects on the East Coast are fighting back in court, with one developer saying its project will likely be terminated if they can’t resume by the end of next week.

Norwegian company Equinor and the Danish energy company Orsted are the latest to sue, with the limited liability companies for their projects filing civil suits late Tuesday. Connecticut and Rhode Island filed their own request on Monday seeking a preliminary injunction for a third project.

The administration announced Dec. 22 it was suspending leases for at least 90 days on the five offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about those concerns.

President Donald Trump has been hostile to renewable energy technologies that produce electricity cleanly, particularly offshore wind, and has instead prioritized oil, coal and natural gas that emit carbon pollution when burned.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Annual Arctic report card documents rising temperatures, melting glaciers

January 7, 2026 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued its annual Arctic Report Card, which documents the way rising temperatures, diminished ice, thawing permafrost, melting glaciers and vegetation shifts are transforming the region and affecting its people.

The agency has released the report for 20 years as a way to track changes in the Arctic.

“The Arctic continues to warm faster than the global average, with the 10 years that comprise the last decade marking the 10 warmest years on record,” Steve Thur, NOAA’s acting administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research and the agency’s acting chief scientist, said at a news conference Dec. 16.

The report card is a peer-reviewed collaboration of more than 100 scientists from 13 countries, with numerous coauthors from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It was officially released at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in New Orleans, where Thur and other officials held the news conference.

The report is the first under the second Trump administration, at a time when the federal government’s commitment to documenting Arctic climate change has diminished: The president has repeatedly called climate change a hoax and federal departments are cancelling climate change-related research and projects, as well as scrubbing climate information from public view.

Read the full article at Wrangell Sentinel 

US Congress rejects Trump’s NOAA Fisheries cuts in compromise budget proposal

January 6, 2026 — U.S. lawmakers largely rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts to NOAA Fisheries in a new compromise appropriations bill Congress needs to pass before the government once again runs out of money on 30 January.

On 5 January, House and Senate appropriations leaders released a compromise piece of legislation that will fund the U.S. Department of Commerce – which houses NOAA Fisheries – through the rest of fiscal year 2026, which runs until the end of September. The compromise bill’s spending for NOAA Fisheries largely aligns with the original Senate version of the legislation, ignoring the Trump administration’s proposal to slash the agency’s funding and eliminate programs.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

How offshore wind permits handled DOD concerns before Interior’s pause

January 6, 2026 — Citing classified reports, the Interior Department last month shut down construction of five offshore wind projects off the East Coast.

A Department of Defense classified assessment, completed in November, contained information about “the rapid evolution of relevant adversary technologies and the resulting direct impacts to national security from offshore wind projects,” according to copies of the similar letters sent to each project’s owner.

“These impacts are heightened by the projects’ sensitive location on the East Coast and the potential to cause serious, immediate, and irreparable harm to our great nation,” said the letters, which were sent by Matthew Giacona, acting director at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full article at E&E News

Trump signs Save Our Seas Act 2.0 Amendments Act into law

January 6, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed the Save Our Seas Act 2.0 Amendments Act into law, strengthening and reauthorizing a federal marine debris cleanup program for another five years.

“This bill ensures critical work continues to combat plastic pollution before it reaches our ocean and supports the Marine Debris Foundation, strengthening efforts to reduce marine debris and protect coastal communities and wildlife,” NGO Ocean Conservancy said in a social media post. “This is a major step forward to advance NOAA’s mission and a clear example of what’s possible when leaders come together to defend science-based solutions for our ocean. Ocean Conservancy is proud to have long championed the Marine Debris Program as part of our broader NOAA defense work.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Offshore Wind Projects Challenge Trump Administration’s Order to Stop Work

January 5, 2026 — Developers of five offshore wind farms that were ordered last week by the Trump administration to halt construction are suing to restart work on at least three of the projects.

The Interior Department on Dec. 22 ordered companies to halt work on five wind farms in various stages of construction along the East Coast. They were: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind, both off the coast of New York; Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Connecticut; Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts; and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia.

The administration cited unspecified national security concerns about the projects.

On Thursday, Orsted, the Danish energy giant that is building Revolution Wind, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On Friday Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind, did the same.

Both companies said they are seeking preliminary injunctions that would allow construction to continue as the litigation proceeds. Orsted is also building Sunrise Wind and said it was considering a similar legal challenge to restart work on that project, too.

Read the full article at The New York Times

 

Trump freezes East Coast offshore wind projects – again

January 5, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has again frozen development on offshore wind projects on the East Coast, just weeks after a federal judge ruled that his initial attempt to pause development was “arbitrary and capricious.”

“President Trump is prioritizing American fishermen, working waterfronts, and the United States’ national security by pausing offshore wind projects,” New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) Chairman and Chief Strategist Dustin Delano said in response. “These unreliable energy sources are an economic, ecological, and national security threat. Safeguarding the United States includes responsible ocean management, and as stewards of the sea, we’re thankful for this decision to halt offshore wind projects.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource