The Daily Caller News Foundation learned on Friday that the Department of the Interior (DOI) is immediately halting all activity on a massive offshore wind project.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) under the DOI is halting activity on the “Revolution Wind” project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut in line with President Donald Trump’s energy goals to boost reliable energy resources and lower costs for Americans, the agency told the DCNF. The Trump administration has dealt a series of recent blows to the wind industry, with the DOI ending “preferential treatment” for what it considers to be foreign-controlled and unreliable energy sources and moving to terminate the massive Lava Ridge Wind Project in southern Idaho that the Biden administration approved just weeks before Trump’s return to office.
“Americans deserve energy that is affordable, reliable, and built to last — not experimental and expensive wind projects that are proven failures,” DOI deputy press secretary Aubrie Spady told the DCNF. “In line with President Donald Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, Interior is putting an immediate stop to these costly failures to deliver a stronger energy future and lower costs for American families. Like President Trump said, ‘the days of stupidity are over in the USA!’”
The Biden administration approved the construction plan for Revolution Wind in 2023, which is located on the federally-owned Outer Continental Shelf. While former President Joe Biden pushed for wind and solar technology throughout his term by greenlighting billions in subsidies, loans and grants, the Trump administration has shifted its focus to conventional and reliable energy sources and taken action to crackdown on federal support for the green energy technology the Biden administration favored.
Trump signed an executive order directing the DOI to “revise any identified regulations, guidance, policies, and practices as appropriate and consistent with applicable law to eliminate any such preferences for wind and solar facilities” on July 7. Trump campaigned against Biden’s push for green energy and has continued to rail against Biden’s climate agenda, writing on Truth Social Wednesday that “any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS. THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY! We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!! MAGA.”
The agency introduced an additional permitting roadblock for green energy projects on public lands on Aug. 1., and a few days later, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X that wind projects “are known to kill eagles” and that his agency would enforce the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to protect eagles. The Trump administration also pulled a permit for a massive pending New Jersey offshore wind project in March.
The wind industry has come under fire in recent years, as multiple beaches closed in 2024 after a broken wind turbine shed debris into the ocean off the coast of Nantucket and protests surged due to concerns about high-voltage cables running through neighborhoods in 2023. Environmentalists also raised concerns over the energy technology after dolphins washed up along the East Coast in 2023.
Some fishermen have also voiced opposition to offshore wind projects, arguing that their industry cannot survive alongside offshore wind farms.
