The Trump Regime is Pissing Into the Wind

How much offshore wind energy potential is there in the US?

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) carried out a coastal resource analysis in 2022 to answer that question. Combining near shore anchored platforms and deeper water floating platforms, NREL identified a total of 4.3 terawatts of production sites, capable of generating 13,567 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually.

In 2024, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates we consumed roughly 4000 TWh of electricity. In other words, offshore wind energy alone has the potential to generate more than three times our current annual electricity needs.

Last December, Trump renamed the NREL to be National Laboratory of the Rockies (NRL). You see, that gets rid of the "renewable" part.

At a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, almost two years ago, candidate Trump promised to abolish the wind. As Oliver Milman reported in The Guardian at the time,

“We are going to make sure that [wind power] ends on day one,” Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for November’s presidential election, said of the offshore wind farms. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on day one.”

And on his first day in office? He signed that executive order, I'll call it the "Wind Order," temporarily blocking any new, or renewal of, offshore wind leasing.

This withdrawal temporarily prevents consideration of any area in the OCS for any new or renewed wind energy leasing for the purposes of generation of electricity or any other such use derived from the use of wind. This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.
-- 90 Fed. Reg. 8363 (January 29, 2025)

Oil, gas, and minerals? A-OK! As Clare Fieseler wrote for Canary Media,

“We aren’t going to do the wind thing,” Trump said Monday, moments before signing an executive order that presses the pause button on new activity within the sector.

Maybe. It turns out the "wind thing" will do its own thing. A little more than 4 months later, on May 5, 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James led seventeen states and Washington, D.C., in filing a law suit in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts to challenge Trump's Wind Order. Hold that thought.

In the mean time, the clear language of Trump's order halts only "new or renewed" leasing. So, you might think that existing wind energy projects on exiting leases were safe. Eh? You would be wrong. Not just wrong, but wrong, wrong. And wrong again. Let me count the ways.

Wrong #1. In April 16, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum cited the Wind Order to halt work on the Empire Wind Project, a $5 billion infrastructure project already under construction, which will provide wind energy electricity directly to New York City. Enough energy to power 500,000 homes. Burgum's justification?

The matters identified thus far suggest that approval for the project was rushed through by the prior Administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the Project.

In other words, "Biden Bad" and so the government can ignore the legality of any government permitting. Ah, but the Trump regime was pissing into the wind; it came as legal blow-back from New York State officials, the Project owner Equinor, and diplomatic blow-back from Norway, international corporate headquarters of Equinor.

By May 19, 2025, those winds forced Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, to lift the block. In a letter to Empire Offshore Wind our Acting Director wrote: "That Order is hereby amended to lift the halt on activities during the ongoing review."

Clare Fieseler provides a timeline of the gory details, again in Canary Media. At present, Empire Wind 1 is still scheduled to come online at the end of 2026 and be fully operational in 2027.

(Who knew we had a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management? Sounds nice, doesn't it! I'll just call it BOEM for short.)

Wrong #2: On August 20, 2025, Matthew Giacona, (another?) Acting Director of the BOEM, issued another stop-work order. This time blocking Revolution Wind, a project by the Danish energy company Ørsted. Revolution Wind is the first multi-state wind energy project, designed to provide electricity to 300,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. It was nearly complete when the stop-work order was imposed. Once again, BOEM's halt relied on Trump's Wind Order against "new or renewed" leases.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is issuing this Director’s Order to Revolution Wind, LLC to halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind Project on the outer continental shelf (OCS) to allow time for it to address concerns that have arisen during the review that the Department is undertaking pursuant to the President’s Memorandum of January 20, 2025. 90 Fed. Reg. 8363 (January 29, 2025).

Ah, but the Trump regime was pissing into the wind. Again. This time legal blow-back came from Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the developer Ørsted. On September 22, Federal Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Revolution Wind could resume construction. Jennifer McDermott and Matthew Daly have a good report in AP News with the background.

On March 13 of this year, Revolution Wind began delivering energy to the onshore grid.

Wrong #3: By December 8, 2025, the State Attorneys General suit against Trump's Wind Order had worked its way through the gears of the legal system. District Court Judge Patti Saris ruled, "You gotta be kidding me!" Well, not in so many words. Here's the Court's proper language:

After review of the parties’ submissions and a hearing, the Court concludes that the Wind Order constitutes a final agency action that is arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law. Accordingly, the Court ALLOWS Plaintiffs’ motions (Dkts. 172, 175), DENIES the Agency Defendants’ motion (Dkt. 179), and declares unlawful and VACATES the Wind Order.

That is so cool! I think "DENY AND VACATE" will be on my next "No Kings" sign.

Sadly, however, the Trump regime appears to actually enjoy pissing into the wind. Two weeks after the District Court smack down, the empire struck back. Frustrated by tilting with one windmill at a time, Trump rolled out his tried and true strategy: mass chaos. The regime attacked East coast wind projects all at once. On December 22, 2025, Trump suspended the leases of the five largest Atlantic wind energy projects: Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Sunrise Wind, and Empire Wind.

The justification? Wait for it … "emerging national security risks" says Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, whose nose is, by now, at least 9 feet long. Hey, just like the ballroom! The official notice was from good ol' Matthew Giacona, (still) Acting Director of the BOEM, and the national security rational is almost certainly bogus.

But "They call the wind Maria," and the Trump regime discovered it was still blowing against them.

• On January 12, D.C. District Judge Lamberth ruled that work on the Revolution Wind project could continue because the government failed to explain why national security concerns required a complete shutdown.
• On January 15, District Judge Carl J. Nichols, an appointee of President Donald Trump, stayed the Trump order and allowed Empire Wind construction to resume.
• On January 16, U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, Eastern District of Virginia, issued a preliminary injunction against the stop-work order allowing Virginia Coast Offshore Wind to resume work.
• On January 27, Judge Brian Murphy, Boston U.S. District Court, halted the administration’s stop work order for Vineyard Wind.
• Finally, on February 2, Judge Lamberth ruled that Sunrise Wind could resume construction.

Whew! Oh-for-five; so much winning!

Yet, still. If at first you don't succeed, piss into the wind again. On February 17, Adam R. F. Gustafson, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, DOJ, filed a Notice of Appeal contesting Judge Saris' ruling against Trump's Wind Order.

However, back in the U.S. Senate, a storm was brewing. Bipartisan (!) efforts were underway to reform the whole federal energy permitting process. A chance for all kinds of Trump mischief. Seeing an opportunity, Sheldon Whitehouse, senior Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, let it be known that if Secretary Burgum proceeded with his appeal, then the permitting reform bill would simply blow away and disappear. One thing Senator Whitehouse is really good at is huffing and puffing. It worked.

Soaked head to foot from pissing into the wind for more than a year, Secretary Burgum quietly let the deadline for the appeal lapse without action. Michelle Lewis, writing in electrek, notes:

The fact that all five [offshore wind projects] have now been approved by the courts to continue construction tells us that the Trump administration’s claims about national security were nothing more than a stall tactic to waste time and money.

So, for now at least, offshore wind projects permitted prior to Trump II are moving forward. But, unfortunately, they represent just a gentle breeze when judged against the potential we identified at the top of this post.