In mid-December, the Trump administration ordered a halt to the five offshore wind projects currently being built in the United States, a major blow to the American power-generating industry at a time when electricity consumption is increasing rapidly.
The administration action suspended the leases for the five large projects along the East Coast claiming that the Pentagon had identified national security risks. This was just the latest step by the administration in its ongoing efforts to block and limit the use of renewable energy sources.
Ironically, the action came two weeks after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s January 20, 2025 executive order blocking wind energy projects. The judge said that the halt to leasing wind farms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates federal law.
Some arguments related to offshore wind and national security center around the capacity of turbine blades and reflective towers to create radar interference. This interference – known as clutter – could potentially obscure legitimate moving targets and create false targets. The issue has long been well understood and is part of the planning for wind farms. The truth is that the wind farms themselves could be an offshore location for threat detection systems.
Offshore wind has had its opponents for as long as it has existed. The battle over Cape Wind is a prime example. The President of the United States has declared war on a technology that is supplying increasing amounts of clean energy across the globe, but the war may not be over.
