As Offshore Wind Conflict Heats Up, Trump’s Flop Sweat Is Exhibiting

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On December 22, President Donald Trump lastly ordered a halt to development exercise on the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind challenge. What took you so lengthy, Donald? Trump has been threatening the US offshore wind business with whole destruction ever since January, one notable exception being the Virginia challenge. One way or the other, CVOW was shielded by somebody, or one thing — up till now, that’s. Gosh, who or what might that be?

Someone Actually, Actually Does Not Like Offshore Wind Generators

For these of you new to the subject, the President’s private vendetta in opposition to wind generators usually and offshore wind generators specifically will be traced to an previous lawsuit over a wind farm in Scotland, as extensively reported across the media world and right here at CleanTechnica. 

For no matter causes, although, through the president’s first time period in workplace, his bête noire didn’t carry over into federal coverage with a lot pressure. The offshore wind business will depend on leases issued by the Bureau of Ocean Vitality Administration within the US Division of the Inside, however no one remembered to inform BOEM to cease issuing leases. So, BOEM stored making ready new lease auctions between 2017 and 2021, enabling extra wind tasks to maintain shifting by way of the pipeline.

Consequently, by the point former President Joe Biden left workplace on January 20 of this 12 months, the offshore wind business had a stack of federal leases in hand, and development exercise was properly underway at offshore websites in New England in addition to New York and Virginia. Extra tasks in New Jersey and elsewhere have been additionally absolutely permitted and approaching the development part.

That got here to an abrupt halt when Trump took workplace once more. This time round, he was properly ready to exert his lease authority in opposition to the offshore wind business. Not coincidentally, offshore wind can also be a ripe goal for partisan assaults. Except Virginia, the states internet hosting offshore wind tasks are those by which the Democratic Get together holds the governor’s workplace (see tons extra offshore background right here).

And, that’s the place issues get attention-grabbing. Whereas wind business stakeholders in Democratic states have battled the Trump administration in courtroom to maintain tasks shifting this 12 months (or made aspect offers with the White Home), the CVOW challenge appeared immune from the Trump chopper.

Maybe — and that is simply wild conjecture — the Republican Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, personally interceded on behalf of CVOW. Regardless of having the endorsement of Trump when working for workplace, Youngkin has persistently supported the challenge.

Opposing Trump on offshore wind requires some braveness — or not, because the case could also be. Youngkin was already term-limited by the point CVOW received underway. With 2025 being his final 12 months in workplace, the governor didn’t want a lot braveness to cross Trump on the problem of wind generators. And, for causes finest identified solely to himself, Trump spared Youngkin the political embarrassment of an premature finish to certainly one of his signature tasks.

So, what occurred? Why did Trump lastly challenge a stop-work order in opposition to CVOW now? Election Day 2025 occurred, in fact. That’s what occurred. Virginia was certainly one of two states to carry an off-year gubernatorial election on November 4. The Republican candidate for governor misplaced and the Democratic candidate, Abigail Spanberger, might be sworn into workplace on January 17, thereby placing Virginia into the identical sinking offshore wind boat as each different Democratic state on the Atlantic Coast.

New Offshore Wind Order Reveals Flop Sweat, Not Power

Along with CVOW, the brand new stop-work order impacts 4 different tasks: Winery Wind (Massachusetts), Revolution Wind (Rhode Island and Connecticut), Dawn Wind (New York), and Empire Wind (additionally New York). The Trump administration cited nationwide safety dangers because the justification for the order, which is very unusual contemplating that every one 5 tasks already underwent an intensive, multi-agency nationwide safety evaluation as a situation for approval.

Presumably, a model new nationwide safety danger has all of a sudden surfaced, one thing so excessive, dire, and harmful that it justifies interrupting 5 main infrastructure tasks in midstream, upending state power plans and impacting 1000’s of staff, companies, and buyers. Properly, no. In a short press launch issuing the stop-work order, the Inside Division described a mashup of unspecified new data with previous, unclassified issues about radar interference which have lengthy been settled.

As well as, the stop-work order doesn’t come proper out and say that any of the 5 tasks are formally lifeless within the water. “This pause will give the Division [of the Interior], together with the Division of Conflict [actually, of Defense] and different related authorities companies, time to work with leaseholders and state companions to evaluate the opportunity of mitigating the nationwide safety dangers posed by these tasks,” the Inside Division defined.

No phrase but on why development can’t proceed whereas the evaluation is underway, until there may be really a deep, regarding, immanent nationwide safety emergency that can burst upon the US at any minute. In actual fact, the one emergency in sight is the president’s desperation to win a battle, any battle, even when it’s simply tilting at windmills.

For all his bluster, Trump didn’t cease the US wind business this 12 months, whether or not offshore or onshore.

For that matter, Trump is failing at, properly, every part. His approval ranking is tanking alongside the state of the US economic system. The flop sweat is virtually bursting by way of his stage make-up as he careens from one public relations catastrophe to a different, hoping in opposition to hope to distract public consideration away from his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Nonetheless, the Epstein scandal refuses to go away, proving as soon as once more that the coverup is worse than the crime. Even Trump’s rock-hard MAGA conspiracy cult is starting to crumble over the Epstein coverup. In spite of everything, the existence of a kid intercourse ring run by shadowy elites has been a go-to for MAGA for the reason that heyday of Q-Anon and Pizzagate. MAGA voters ferried Trump again into workplace on the promise that every one would lastly be revealed within the Epstein recordsdata, and all they received was some awful T-shirts.

As for wind energy, it’s again to courtroom for the US states which were banking on offshore wind to maintain the kilowatts flowing. Equinor has additionally affirmed that it intends to see Empire Wind by way of to completion. In spite of everything, the wind will proceed to blow lengthy after Trump leaves workplace for the second and last time as scheduled on January 20, 2029 — peacefully this time, one hopes.

Photograph: Say it ain’t so! Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is certainly one of 5 offshore wind tasks on the Atlantic coast “paused” by the Trump administration on December 22 (cropped, courtesy of CVOW).