With the halt on construction of a nearly complete offshore windmill project in Rhode Island, it appears President Donald Trump means business in undoing the last administration’s green energy policies.
Orsted, a Danish company developing the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island, was told by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Friday to “halt all ongoing activities” so that the federal government could “address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States.”
The majority of Orsted’s shares are owned by the Danish government.
This move was met with rancor from Rhode Island Democrats such as Gov. Dan McKee, who said in a statement that it “puts hundreds of union jobs at risk by halting a project that is 80% complete – just steps away from powering more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.”
Connecticut Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont similarly said in a statement that it was a “political move by the Trump administration” that will “drive up the cost of electricity bills.”
Trump has long railed against offshore windmill projects, arguing they cause environmental harm and disrupt natural beauty. In January, he signed an executive order halting future leasing and permitting for future offshore wind projects.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., had a more favorable outlook toward the offshore windmill projects than the southern New England governors.
For years, Harris has criticized an offshore wind project in his district on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, which the Trump administration is now moving to cancel. Trump also canceled an offshore project in New York in April.
“The Trump administration made the right call,” Harris wrote in reaction to the cancellation of the Rhode Island project. “Offshore wind development comes with serious risks—including radar interference and national security threats. Offshore wind development should NEVER come at the expense of America’s safety.”
Harris is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction in the House that pushed for a speedier rollback of Biden-era green energy incentives in the “big, beautiful bill.”
The administration is moving on multiple fronts to undo former President Joe Biden’s incentives for the green energy industry. Last week, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins announced her department “will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland or allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used” in projects supported by her department.
China is a global leader in the development of solar and wind energy technology, although it also produces more total carbon emissions than any other country.