Trump ‘Effectively Halts’ All U.S. Offshore Wind Development Despite Booming Power Demand

Trump ‘Effectively Halts’ All U.S. Offshore Wind Development Despite Booming Power Demand
December 20, 2025
Reading time: 3 minutes

Full Story: Grist
Author: Tik Root









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The U.S. Department of Interior abruptly paused the leases for five of the nation’s largest proposed offshore wind projects on Monday, effectively halting all ongoing offshore wind development in the United States.

The five leases paused under the order are Vineyard Wind 1, Revolution Wind, CVOW, Sunrise Wind, and Empire Wind. They stretch across coastal waters from Massachusetts to Virginia, and were expected to create hundreds of new jobs. The New York Times said the projects are worth US$25 billion and will deliver enough power generation to serve 2.5 million homes and businesses. The order leaves the U.S. with just two operational offshore wind farms, one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other in the waters of New York, the Times noted.

The moves come as electricity demand in the U.S. is growing for the first time in years, driven in large part by the data centres needed to fuel the artificial intelligence boom. The Biden administration issued the leases to help meet that demand and as part of its goal of shifting the country away from fossil fuels, toward more renewable energy sources.

“This so-called ‘pause’ on offshore wind makes no sense and is an escalation of the administration’s ongoing, baseless attacks on clean energy,” Pasha Feinberg, offshore wind strategist at the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said in a statement. “In its ongoing effort to prop up waning fossil fuels interests the administration is taking wilder and wilder swings at the clean energy projects this economy needs.”

In a release announcing the pauses, Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum cited “national security risks,” including technological vulnerability and the proximity of the projects to the East Coast. The department also said unclassified government reports “have long found” that offshore wind projects create radar interference called “clutter.” The clutter, it said, obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects.

“Turbines can interfere with radar— this is absolutely nothing new,” Feinberg told Grist in an email. “All developers are required to work with [the U.S. Department of Defense] during design and construction to evaluate potential impacts and avoid or mitigate them”

U.S. national security expert Kirk Lippold, former commander of the USS Cole, told the Associated Press, records show the defense department “was consulted at every stage of the permitting process.” He said the projects would actually be a boon to national security because they would diversify the country’s energy supply. Experts say more wind production would also benefit customers.