Within a day of President Trump shutting down five major offshore wind farms off the East Coast, the governors of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York arranged a conference call to craft strategies to save the projects.
The wind projects represent a $25 billion investment that was expected to create 10,000 jobs in the region and supply power to more than 2.5 million homes and businesses. The announced reason for the shutdown was unspecified national security threats. The real reason is simply Trump’s longstanding hostility towards wind power.
Last April, the administration ordered a halt to the $5 billion Empire Wind project in New York. Governor Kathy Hochul managed to negotiate the restoration of the project. The Trump administration’s continuing attack on wind projects has faced significant legal setbacks, including a federal judge calling it arbitrary and capricious.
There are already legal challenges to the shutdown underway and there is no reason to believe that the administration’s case is any stronger than it was before.
Meanwhile, over one thousand people working on the offshore wind projects were put out of work just before Christmas. The operator of the regional electric grid in New England said that it was counting on Vineyard Wind – the only one of the five projects already in operation – to provide for its customers this winter. Shutting down the system will increase costs and reliability risks.
There are ongoing meetings with administration officials discussing options for addressing the future of the five windfarms. It remains to be seen how it will all turn out.
