The Trump administration on Friday ordered that all construction stop on Revolution Wind, a $4 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is already mostly built.
The 65-turbine project had obtained all necessary permits from the Biden administration, and nearly 70 percent of the turbines have been installed. The developers behind the project had said it was on track to produce enough electricity for more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring.
Matthew Giacona, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued a letter on Friday to Orsted, the Danish company building the wind farm, ordering it to “halt all ongoing activities” because of unspecified issues.
“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests in the United States,” Mr. Giacona wrote, adding that Orsted “may not resume activities” until the agency has completed a review of the project.
The decision was first reported by The Daily Caller. The Interior Department declined to comment on the order to stop work on Revolution Wind.
In a statement, Orsted said that it was “evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,” including “potential legal proceedings.” The company said it still aimed to complete the project by next year.
Last week, Orsted said that it needed to raise an additional $9.4 billion to shore up its finances as it attempted to complete both Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, another large offshore wind project near Long Island, while contending with an industry downturn that has been exacerbated by President Trump’s opposition to wind farms.
“Orsted and our industry are in an extraordinary situation with the adverse market development in the U.S.,” said Rasmus Errboe, the company’s chief executive.
The Trump administration’s move against Revolution Wind is the latest in a series of its escalating attacks against the wind industry.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department opened a trade investigation into imported wind turbines and their components. The probe could result in further tariffs on the wind industry that could increase costs for offshore projects that are already underway.
Two weeks ago, the administration said it was reversing a Biden administration decision to approve the Lava Ridge Wind Project, a giant wind farm planned for southern Idaho. The administration said it had discovered “legal deficiencies” in the original approval but did not provide details.
The Interior Department had signaled last month that it would consider revoking federal permits for wind projects that opponents have sued over, even if those projects were already under construction.
In April, the Trump administration ordered a halt to work at Empire Wind, a $5 billion wind farm off the coast of Long Island that was already under construction, without publicly providing a justification. After a month of negotiations with Gov. Kathy Hochul, Democrat of New York, the administration let Empire Wind move forward, but administration officials suggested that they had done so only after Ms. Hochul agreed to approve new gas pipelines in the state. Ms. Hochul has denied that any such deal was made.
Equinor, the developer behind Empire Wind, recently said that those delays and other regulatory changes affecting U.S. offshore wind projects had cost the company nearly $1 billion.
At the same time as it thwarts the wind industry, the Trump administration has taken several steps to boost oil and gas as well as coal, the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuel when it comes to burning it for electricity.
The Energy Department on Thursday extended an emergency order compelling a Michigan coal-burning power plant to stay open past its retirement date. The department has issued several orders to keep coal plants running past their planned closure dates, even in cases where the operators never sought an extension and ratepayers would shoulder the costs of complying.
“This administration has it exactly backward,” said Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “It’s trying to prop up clunky, polluting coal plants while doing all it can to halt the fastest-growing energy sources of the future — solar and wind power.”
Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore energy companies, said in a statement the Trump administration decision would kill jobs and hurt the U.S. economy.
“Revolution Wind is already under construction and nearly complete, representing years of planning, billions in private investment, and significant progress for America’s offshore energy supply chain,” he said, adding, “Any pause or uncertainty at this stage could ripple across jobs, contracts and communities already benefiting from the project.”
Green Oceans, a nonprofit group that has sued over the approvals of federal permits for Revolution Wind, praised the Trump administration’s move. “This decisive action demonstrates that the federal government finally recognizes the seriously flawed permitting process that allowed this project and others to move forward,” the group said in a statement.
Mr. Trump has been a critic of wind power for years, ever since he unsuccessfully tried to stop an offshore wind farm from being built in view of one of his Scottish golf courses. Mr. Trump has called the large turbines ugly and expensive and has insisted that offshore wind farms are killing endangered whales in the Atlantic Ocean, although scientists have said there is no evidence to support that claim.
The Biden administration had tried to accelerate the development of offshore wind, which is commonplace in Europe but barely exists in the United States, and approved nearly a dozen commercial-scale wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean. Yet some of those projects foundered as a result of soaring costs, high interest rates, supply chain delays and bursts of local opposition.
Only a handful of offshore wind projects in the United States are still under construction, including Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind off New York; Vineyard Wind near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. In the wake of Mr. Trump’s election, some companies have said they will halt plans to develop any more offshore wind projects in the country for the foreseeable future.