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President Donald Trump has escalated his war against offshore wind, freezing all five under-construction projects, including Vineyard Wind, and using the Department of Defense (now called the Department of War) in his clampdown.
On Monday morning, the Interior Department announced it is immediately “pausing” the leases for Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind, Sunrise Wind, Empire Wind, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, due to “national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.” A press release from Interior asserts the radar interference created by wind arrays is a national security threat.
Vineyard Wind is almost done with construction, with only one turbine tower left to send out, and then some blade sets to install. It has been sending power to the grid all through the year. It is unclear if the project must now cease sending power.
“Their leases will be suspended due to national security concerns,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox News during an appearance Monday. “During this time of suspension, we’ll work with companies to try to find a mitigation. We completed the work that President Trump has asked us to do. The Department of War has come back conclusively.”
The federal government has provided no timeline for this review of under-construction leases. But Dominion Energy, which is building Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and Orsted, which is building Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind, in statements said the Interior issued a 90-day (or three month) “suspension of work” and “all ongoing activities.”
Orsted noted that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in its order said it reserves the right to extend the suspension beyond 90 days.
Previous suspensions under stop work orders, each of which lasted about one month, cost developers tens of millions of dollars. A longer-term suspension could very well threaten contracts, such as those for the specialized installation vessels needed to build or complete the projects.
Andy Benedetto, who represents the local millwrights union that has workers helping stage the turbine components out of New Bedford, said that between Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind, they have 80 millwrights “who have effectively been fired during Christmas week.”
The Interior’s press release said the pause will give the government “time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”
Trump’s action may lead to another court battle
The suspension announcement comes two business days after a federal judge issued a final judgment Thursday following her earlier order striking down Trump’s day-one wind memo.
Notably, the judge’s order only applies to the permitting portion of the wind memo, stating federal agencies must make permit decisions within a reasonable time. It does not make any determination on project leasing.
Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, thinks the timing of Monday’s action is no accident, coming just days after the judge’s ruling.
“We do anticipate that at least some of the developers and states are likely to try to get right into court to enjoin any attempt to pause the projects. The fact that they’re premising it on allegedly classified security reports may make it a bit more complicated,” she said.
But Daly said the developers and states may have a strong legal case for overturning the latest pause.
“There was a national security review conducted under the Biden administration, a robust one. These vague assertions of newly identified security risks. … seem likely to be found to be as pretextual as they seem to be,” she said.
Gov. Maura Healey in a statement said her administration is working with the impacted states and developers: “I will stand up against this unlawful action by the Trump Administration to protect Massachusetts’ ratepayers and workers.”
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in an email said the office will work with Vineyard Wind to ensure it can continue delivering power and reach full buildout.
The commonwealth joined more than a dozen Democrat-led states to sue the Trump administration in May over its January wind memo.
National security claims
Under federal regulations, BOEM, which oversees offshore wind development, has the authority to suspend a lease under two circumstances: “when necessary to comply with judicial decrees prohibiting some or all activities under your lease”; or “when the suspension is necessary for reasons of national security or defense.”
The statute states, “Activities may not be conducted on your lease or grant during the period of a suspension except as expressly authorized under the terms of the lease or grant suspension.” The Interior Department has not made the terms of the suspensions known as of Monday morning.
The federal government cited national security in its stop-work order this summer against Revolution Wind. A federal judge overruled it, and the project, which is almost finished, was allowed to resume construction.
In the statement, Burgum said the freeze “addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.”
Per Interior, public reports have “long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference” that “obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects.”
Groups opposed to offshore wind development have been highlighting national security as an issue over this last year. This summer, three Republican congressmen, in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, urged the Department of Justice to conduct a review of offshore wind projects for national security threats.
One group, ACK for Whales, based in Nantucket and suing the government over a wind project, said it was “very pleased” with the announcement and had “long cited the very real threat from radar interference caused by these enormous offshore wind turbines.
“Not only does this pose a danger to fisherman [sic] and others on the water, but this obviously also poses a massive national security threat,” Val Oliver, the organization’s president, wrote.
Anti-wind Facebook groups’ posts have asked followers to write to Burgum about national security threats, providing his office’s email and phone number. And offshore wind opposition group Green Oceans this summer commissioned a report that lays out a blueprint for the federal government to cancel offshore wind leases. Among several reasons, it lists national security interference.
The report states the Department of Defense can provide information to inform decisions “regarding lease cancellation on national security grounds.”
Wind power and radar
The Interior Department’s announcement cited a 2024 report from a Department of Energy working group, established in 2014 to mitigate the effects of wind turbines on radar.
Radar systems are used by air traffic control, weather stations, maritime industries, like fishing and shipping, and the military.
Interior included a quote also found in a 2024 report submitted to Congress by the working group, which includes the Departments of Energy and Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, NOAA and BOEM. It stated that solutions to mitigate impacts of turbines can cause radar to “miss actual targets.”
In a paragraph below what the Interior Department quoted in its press release, the federal working group stated that while “no mitigation technology has been able to fully restore the technical performance of impacted radars,” radar interference mitigation techniques and collaboration between federal agencies and wind developers “have enabled federal radar agencies to continue to perform their missions without significant impacts.”
The report also details that wind farms can enter “curtailment agreements” with the Department of Defense, in which they reduce the speed of the blades during emergencies or scheduled military operations.
Vineyard Wind has a curtailment agreement with the federal government, and as of last year, the Department of Defense had 65 such agreements, but had not activated one, according to the working group.
BOEM also routinely works with other agencies, including the Department of Defense, in a yearslong process to evaluate and approve the siting of leases and final construction plans.
“I am not aware of a single instance in which BOEM did not follow a Department of Defense recommendation,” said a former Interior Department employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The notion that now, years later, radar is being flagged as an issue and was not fully vetted during the prior project approvals is “ludicrous,” the former employee said.
“Offshore wind has been installed and spinning for over 30 years. Every other country has managed to do it in a way that is consistent with their national security,” the former Interior employee said. “How is it possible we’re the only country that can’t manage this?”
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has previously undertaken research and review for the federal government regarding offshore wind development and radar. In 2022, a committee released an 82-page report on how wind arrays can interfere with vessel radar.
The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing groups, celebrated Monday’s suspensions: “Impacts to radar has been a concern for RODA’s members for years! Navigational safety for fishermen and national security cannot be compromised.”
Still, fishing vessels have been navigating the wind farms, and research was set to get underway early next year on how fishing boats behave in them.
Warren and Markey: “bizarre attack on our grid”
U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren slammed the Trump administration for its latest action.
“Shutting off an operating offshore wind power plant would kill local union jobs and hike our energy bills,” they said in a joint statement. “Vineyard Wind 1 is currently delivering affordable and reliable power into our grid and has the permits, financing, and approval to deliver even more.”
Between July and September, Vineyard Wind had sold enough electricity to the grid to power an estimated 50,000 Massachusetts homes as construction continued. On Monday, renewable energy accounted for 11% of the New England grid’s resource mix. Of the renewables, wind accounted for nearly 50%.
“Trump’s vendetta against American-made energy and union jobs makes our nation weaker, our costs higher, and our families less certain about how they’re going to make ends meet,” the senators continued. “As sitting lawmakers, we demand to see the classified reports the Trump administration is waving around to justify this bizarre attack on our grid.”
ISO New England, the grid operator, in a statement said Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind “are particularly important to system reliability in the winter when offshore wind output is highest and other forms of fuel supply are constrained.”
“While ISO-NE forecasts enough generation capacity is available for the current season, canceling or delaying these projects will increase costs and risks to reliability in our region,” the company said.
The Light has contacted Interior, the Department of Defense and BOEM for more information on the cited national security concerns and what the suspension means for projects. In a response, Interior provided a link to the press release.
Among several questions, The Light asked the agencies why the national security concerns are not being applied to South Fork Wind, a 12-turbine project in the same area as the other leases that has been operational and sending power since late 2023.
Orsted said it is considering all options, including the “evaluation of potential legal proceedings.” The company said Revolution Wind was set to start delivering power next month.
David Schoetz, a spokesperson for Equinor, which is developing Empire Wind off the New York coast, said in an email that the company is “aware of the stop work order announced by the Department of Interior” and added, “We are evaluating the order and seeking further information from the federal government.”
Dominion Energy in a statement said its Virginia wind project is “essential for American national security and meeting Virginia’s dramatically growing energy needs… Stopping CVOW for any length of time will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation’s most important war fighting, AI, and civilian assets. It will also lead to energy inflation and threaten thousands of jobs.”
Dominion Energy said it worked in close coordination with the military, and that the project’s two pilot turbines have been operating for five years without any impacts to national security.
Of the five paused projects, only Vineyard Wind has been sending power. Altogether, they’re scheduled to reach full operation by 2026 or 2027, and power more than 2 million homes, according to the developers’ figures. The nameplate capacity of the projects will exceed 5 gigawatts of wind energy. However, most wind farms operate at a capacity factor of about 50%, and will on average send about half of the nameplate capacity.
Daly said Monday’s action sets a “really dangerous precedent” for any future energy projects in the country.
“If [the Trump administration] can do this to offshore wind, they ought to think about what a future administration might try to do with respect to other kinds of energy that they don’t like,” she said.
Vineyard Wind did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org
How is it that multiple European nations and China have figured this out and we can’t even get one off the ground? Yes, offshore wind relies on foreign technology, but why would any American company invest in developing technology the government is actively hostile towards?
RADAR interference? Are you kidding me? China’s popping up windfarms all over the south sea, which is probably their most strategically important waters.
We cannot achieve energy independence on fossil fuels alone, but instead of expanding our energy portfolio to include renewables *at scale*, Trump and his GOP continue their campaign to isolate America and let the world pass us by.
Off shore wind power is plentiful, renewable, and will eventually meet the electricity demands of the entire east coast. We will wait.
Outstanding News , now it’s time to get that junk out of our waters. Wind is worthless, always has been, and always will be. Next step is to vote Maura Healey out of the governor’s office.
Worthless ? Its currently powering 50,000 homes with no harm to the environment, with plans for much more to keep rates down. You must be very wealthy if you don’t worry about the rising cost of electricity.
And you must have your head buried in the sands of all the promises of far left liberal new green deal. It is well known that Wind has caused Electric bills to rise here in Massachusetts.
Try using science instead of News Max, Fox News, or the Oval Office as your sources, you will look smarter for eternity on the internet.
Tit for tat, not everyone feels the way you do, and talk about looking smarter, stop using fake science generated by the far left radical liberals who push these failed new green deal initiatives.
Wind could interfere with the tracking of nuclear weapons. So what is more important getting 2% of electricity for the grid or being blown away by any missile. Plus our waterfront is being misused by wind stopping any potential development that would bring real jobs and revenue to our city. Our Mayor isn’t to happy with the shutdown. WHY.
It’s very interesting that thousands of windmills in south Texas, and thousands of oil rigs in the pacific and the gulf do not cause radar interference?
Such a disruptive administration!
Well the unions will have plenty of jobs now removing these pin wheels and building more power plants and gas lines.
Let’s see how hard our politicians fight for the ship building in our area
Where’s my comment
Let me guess. Your comments are in opposition to OSW, yes? Must be in the NBLight’s circular file, like two of mine made right after this article’s publication. Took them over a day to get mine up and then, after a day, they went POOF! The Light is very biased toward OSW.
ACK and others like them are,Maga collaborators using fake excuses to justify canceling affordable energy to the working people of New Bedford and millions on the East Coast. Radar interference national security threat such absurd poppycock.Jobs on the waterfront? You mean the 80 mill rights who got a lump of coal in their stocking by the fossil fuel loving alternative power hating MAGA REGIME and it’s big donor buddies Wind power is part of
Our future cheaper power needs like coal was 100 yrs ago.While China and Europe build for the future Trump chases boats and tankers in the Caribbean China gains respect by building infrastructure in Latin America..think about who’s winning that competition..burying your head in the sand won’t win competition or respect from them or people
in New Bedford..the states affected,should sue and sue,again STAY to fight Fight to win
Maga, Maga, Maga, say a few more times, it changes nothing. Not everyone has to believe in far left liberal ideology and think the way you do. There are a lot of good people that for years that have worked to protect our environment, waterways, and sea life from all forms of pollution and are glad to see the stoppage of wind.