The projects impacted are Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts; Coastal Virginia, which lies off the coast of its titular state; Revolution Wind, near Rhode Island; and Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind, both off the coast of New York. The five projects represent about US$28 billion in total committed capital, according to BloombergNEF.
Shares of offshore wind companies slumped. Orsted A/S, the Danish company co-developer of Revolution Wind, declined 13%. Danish turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S slipped 2.7% while Dominion Energy, developer of the Coastal Virginia, fell 3.7%.
The suspensions raise a fresh question mark over the future of an emerging sector that’s been in Donald Trump’s sights even before he was elected to his second term as president. Trump has openly expressed disdain for wind power and imposed restrictions on offshore projects within hours of taking office in January, leading to various legal challenges. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that the president’s ban on new projects was illegal.
It remains to be seen if citing national security will be a more legally durable way to keep wind turbines out of US waters. The effect that offshore wind can have on radar has been known for years, said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James.
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“I’m sceptical that there is any new information about the military concerns all of a sudden that singlehandedly warrants projects being halted,” he said. “We know the administration is not a fan of offshore wind, to put it mildly.”
European nations have had coastal wind farms for years and haven’t experienced problems, according to Lara Skinner, executive director of the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University.
“All of these projects have gone through extensive review, including from the Department of Defence,” she said in an interview, referring to the suspended US projects.
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Analysts at Jefferies said in a research note that “the language used by the administration and prior experience on stop orders should bring some optimism projects could restart quickly”.
Lawmakers criticising the suspension included Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, who predicted another court battle over what he called an “illegal order” to stop projects that are almost complete.
“Trump’s war on wind [is] unhinged and totally illegal,” he said in a post on X.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said “there’s no credible justification” for curtailing work on the projects. “The real threat to national security is in undermining our energy independence,” she wrote on X.
Empire Wind, which is being developed by Norwegian oil giant Equinor ASA, was halted earlier this year, only to see work resume after Hochul reached a deal with Trump to support new natural gas pipeline capacity in her state.
Offshore wind projects prompted national security concerns under previous administrations. The Defence Department during President Joe Biden’s term in office pushed successfully for changes to leases being sold along the West Coast to address some of the issues.
“These towers are gargantuan,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in an interview with Fox Business Monday. “One can understand how they would create issues for radar.”
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“The movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called ‘clutter’,” the Interior Department said in its statement.
Dominion said it received an order to suspend work on the project for 90 days. The move, the company said, “will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation’s most important warfighting, AI and civilian assets.”
Equinor said it’s evaluating the order and seeking more information from the government. Orsted and Vineyard didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The wind industry is a significant economic driver, according to Skinner, and the order will now threaten workers’ livelihoods.
“This is really concerning,” she said. “There are people out there working on these projects and now they’re not working and not getting paid, right before the holiday.”
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