Both Local Wind Farms Affected by Decision
By Hank Russell
The Interior Department announced that it has placed a pause on leases for five wind farm projects, two of which are based off the coast of Long Island: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind. The agency cited “national security concerns” as a reason for this decision.
“Due to national security concerns identified by @DeptofWar, @Interior is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Interior Secretary Doug Burghum posted on social media. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED. @POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy policy & putting security FIRST!”
In an interview with Fox Business, Burghum said he will work with companies on mitigation while the leases are being suspended. “But we’ve completed the work President [Donald] Trump has asked us to do” and that the Department of War has “conclusively” determined that these wind turbines “create radar interference” and “genuine risk for the U.S., particularly for the — where they are in proximity on the East Coast population centers.”
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. agreed with Burghum. “Offshore wind is bad energy policy, bad environmental policy, and bad economic policy,” he posted on social media. “It kills whales, destroys local ground fisheries, and decimates shoreline communities.”
Kennedy said some of these turbines are “twice the height of the Washington Monument” and “pose navigational hazards, and disrupt marine and aviation radar, endangering American lives and national security.” He added that it costs three times more to produce energy from wind power than other sources.
“This boondoggle benefits only the big financial houses like BlackRock and Goldman and foreign construction firms,” Kennedy said. “Thank you to President Trump and @SecretaryBurgum for this decisive action.”
Both Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind have each had their share of problems. As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, as Governor Kathy Hochul announced the start of Sunrise Wind last year, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released an audit on the same day which found inadequate planning, monitoring and assessment of risks and challenges in the PSC’s efforts to help the state meet the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s (Climate Act) targets, which seek 70% renewably sourced electricity by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2040.
The audit also showed that, while the PSC and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have taken considerable steps in planning for New York State’s transition to renewable energy, they both must take stronger action to meet the state’s clean energy goals.
LILP also reported that the Empire Wind project was ordered to shut down under Trump’s orders back in April, but, a month later, rescinded the stop work order. That same month, Attorney General Letitia James sued the Trump administration over his January 20 executive order to have the federal government halt all approvals on wind energy projects. James called the freeze on these projects arbitrary and unlawful. Because of the executive order, Equinor stopped work on the project in April.
This month, a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration, saying the executive order was unlawful, LILP reported.
“The Trump Administration has yet again suspended critical power generation projects that have been decades in the making,” the New York State Public Service Commission said in a statement. “Not only does this action directly puts thousands of good-paying union jobs at risk, it runs contrary to the Administration’s own goals of encouraging reliable and abundant domestic energy production.”
The PSC noted, “The offshore wind industry has been a fast-growing portion of our economy that has spurred significant economic development and billions of dollars in private investment throughout the state and beyond. The regulatory uncertainty the federal government continues to create in pausing fully permitted private-sector projects is unacceptable at a time when more power generation is needed for reliability and energy security. Under the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul, New York is working alongside other impacted states to safeguard the affected projects.”
Hochul posted on social media, “The job-killing Trump administration just fired thousands of hardworking New Yorkers before the holidays and made our country more dependent on foreign energy in the process.”
LILP also reached out to Ørsted and Equinor for comment. An Equinor spokesperson replied, “We are aware of the stop work order announced by the Department of Interior involving five wind projects under offshore construction in the U.S. We are evaluating the order and seeking further information from the federal government.”
Ørsted did not respond as of press time.