Trump Halts NY Offshore Wind Project Work Amid Sector Review

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration halted work on an offshore wind farm being built off New York amid a broader review of the sector’s projects.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered the pause on Equinor ASA’s project in consultation with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to a post Wednesday on X. The project had been fully permitted, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. Called Empire 1, the wind facility designed to power 500,000 homes was slated to start commercial operation in 2027.

Trump is a longtime critic of wind turbines he decries as ugly, bird-killing monstrosities. He raised the specter of blocking even fully permitted offshore wind projects on his first day in office, when he directed the Interior Department to review the “necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases” and “identifying any legal bases for such removal.”

Still, many analysts and industry advocates had expected widespread, outright hits to the industry to be limited. Burgum previously suggested that his agency’s ongoing review would factor in how far along projects have gotten on their path from proposal to power production.

Yet in an April 16 memo seen by Bloomberg, Burgum told the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that the project was “rushed” by the Biden administration without sufficient study of its effects. “This halt is to remain in effect until further review is completed to address these serious deficiencies,” he said.

The decision threatens to spook developers of big energy and infrastructure projects in the US, even as Trump has been encouraging that buildout, heightening risk that’s already come into sharper focus with the president’s sweeping tariff moves.

“We will engage directly with BOEM and the Department of Interior to understand the questions raised about the permits we have received from authorities,” Equinor said in a statement. “We will not comment about the potential consequences until we know more.” 

Hochul, in her statement, said the project located south of New York’s Long Island had already put shovels in the ground. “As governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future.”

Equinor acquired the Empire Wind lease area in 2017 and the first phase of the project, Empire Wind 1, reached a $3 billion financial close in December. Its halt is the latest — and perhaps biggest — blow to a sector that seemed on the verge of major growth just four years ago, with wind projects in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic planned to help meet growing electricity demand. But a combination of higher interest rates, supply issues and political pushback has stymied the industry long seen by environmentalists as needed in the climate fight.

Trump indefinitely halted the sale of new offshore wind leases on his first day in office and paused permitting of all wind projects on federal lands and waters. 

Burgum, who himself has criticized the cost of building wind farms at sea, added in his memo to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that he was directing staff there to continue the administration’s review of both existing and pending federal wind projects.

(Updates with comment from Equinor in seventh paragraph)

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