Outages affect projects by Orsted, Avangrid, Dominion Energy and Equinor; Pentagon raises concerns about radar interference from turbine blades and towers; President Trump campaigns for White House promising to eliminate offshore wind industry
(Reuters) – The Trump administration on Monday suspended leasing for five large offshore wind projects under construction off the U.S. East Coast, citing national security concerns, sending stocks of offshore wind companies plummeting.
The outage was the latest blow to offshore wind developers, who have faced repeated suspensions of multibillion-dollar projects under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said wind turbines are ugly, expensive and inefficient. State officials, offshore wind companies and industry groups denounced the move as unwarranted.
The U.S. Department of the Interior said the move follows a Pentagon complaint that the movement of large offshore wind turbine blades and the highly reflective towers that support them can cause radar interference, making it difficult to identify and locate threats.
The department said in a press release that the moratorium will allow relevant federal agencies “time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the potential to reduce the national security risks posed by these projects.”
“The United States government’s primary duty is to protect the American people,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement.
Countries consider their options
According to the release, the suspension affects Orsted’s Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ Vineyard Wind 1 project, Dominion Energy (DN)’s Open in a new tab Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, and Equinor’s (EQNR.OL) Open in a new tab Empire Wind 1 project.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in separate statements Monday that states affected by the freeze are considering their options.
“The Trump administration will look for any excuse to continue its attack on clean energy and the thousands of good-paying jobs these projects will bring, but there is no credible justification for this suspension,” Hochul said.
The National Marine Industry Association, a trade group representing offshore wind developers, also urged the administration to quickly end the moratorium, noting the Pentagon’s involvement in approving projects under previous administrations.
“The regulatory process includes a rigorous framework for assessing the national security impacts of proposed projects, and all projects under construction have already been reviewed by the Department of Defense, with no objections,” said NOIA President Eric Milito.
Shares in Danish energy company Orsted (ORSTED.CO), which owns two of the affected projects, were down more than 12% by late morning, with other companies including Dominion and Equinor also falling.
Dominion said the outages threaten the reliability of its power grid for customers in Virginia, including military bases and data centers that power artificial intelligence.
“These electrons will power data centers that build the nuclear-powered warships needed to win the AI race, support warfighters, and maintain maritime supremacy,” the company said in a press release.
Orsted, Equinor and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners could not immediately be reached for comment.
President Trump’s anti-industry stance
In August, the administration ordered Orsted to halt construction of the Revolution Wind project, which was already underway off the coast of Rhode Island, but a federal judge later lifted the ban.
Earlier this year, the administration reached a compromise with New York state that lifted a stop-work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind, paving the way for construction of a natural gas pipeline backed by President Trump.
Trump campaigned for the White House on a promise to eliminate the offshore wind industry, arguing that windmills are too expensive and harm whales and birds, while promoting oil and gas.
Uncertainty is hurting developers financially. Orsted raised $9.4 billion to fund U.S. projects earlier this year after President Trump’s hostility to wind power deterred potential partners from participating.
Interior Secretary Burgum has previously said the administration is concerned that offshore wind farms could make the United States more vulnerable to attacks by drone swarms.
Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto and Stein Jacobsen in Copenhagen Written by Richard Vardomanis Edited by Doina Chiak, Toby Chopra, Frances Kelly and Rod Nickel
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