Multiple reports over the weekend indicated that President-elect Donald Trump is promising near-immediate action to shut down offshore wind farm projects throughout the Northeast United States, which were widely unpopular with locals who feared the industrialization of their natural shorelines and environmental destruction.
The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden had prioritized funding and support for offshore wind projects during its four years in power, including major wind farm subsidies in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” and relying on leftist governors in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts to back the projects. The projects attracted loud opposition from local tourism industries and environmentalists, who noted a significant increase in the number of washed-up whale carcasses along the shoreline as sonar work began off the Northeast coast.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has rejected the alleged links between whale deaths and offshore wind development, but many prominent local political leaders have rejected the denials on the grounds that they were offered with little detail. NOAA blames the increased number of whale deaths oh an “unusual mortality event” that began in 2016, shortly before the development of America’s first offshore wind farm, the Block Island Wind Farm off of Rhode Island.
Republican lawmakers and experts are calling on the Biden administration to put an “immediate moratorium” on offshore wind development until its effects on U.S. military operations, navigation and radar systems are studied, according to a report. https://t.co/GSfh4tetaO
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 28, 2023
The Associated Press confirmed on Friday with Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), one of the most vocal opponents of offshore wind farms in New Jersey, that President-elect Trump had asked for his help in drafting an executive order to stop offshore wind projects.
“I said ‘Mr. President, we need to move on this.’ He said, ‘Yeah, we definitely do. I agree. I’m against them,’ ” Van Drew told the Associated Press. “He said, ‘Write an executive order, get it to my people.'”
Van Drew indicated that his draft was meant as more of a first draft to begin the discussion on the executive order than a text that would be replicated verbatim. The Congressman said that he had already written his draft and sent it to Trump’s choice to be Secretary of the Interior, former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. The Interior Department is home to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is in charge of approving offshore wind projects.
Rep. Van Drew was among the most prominent lawmakers opposing wind projects.
“It’s going to hurt fishing, hurt our environment, hurt tourism, and just in general I don’t see any good in it except that for those people who want to gain something from it, there’s a lot of money floating around,” Rep. Van Drew told Breitbart News in March 2023.
“There’s been few things in my career — and I’ve spanned from being a mayor to what used to be called a freeholder, a county commissioner, to state senate state assembly,” Van Drew emphasized, “I don’t know if there’s anything that has truly in my heart, and I mean this, bothered me as much as this does. I’m really worried about it.”
On Sunday, New Jersey Assemblyman Paul Kanitra confirmed on social media that he had spoken to Burgum while attending a pre-inaugural event in Washington, DC. Kanitra, formerly the mayor of the coastal community of Point Pleasant Beach, said he discussed offshore wind with Burgum for 20 minutes.
“My fellow offshore wind warriors will be very happy to hear that he told me directly that no new wind farms will be built off New Jersey’s coast during the Trump Administration!!!” Kanitra wrote. “So sorry to break this news to all the international corporations that were trying to industrialize our ocean and destroy the Jersey Shore, but you guys might as well start packing up now.”
Spoke to incoming Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum last night for 20 minutes at the America First Policy…
Posted by Assemblyman Paul Kanitra on Sunday, January 19, 2025
Other disparate reports have also indicated that Trump will move swiftly to shut down offshore wind farm development, a move celebrated by some environmentalists who prioritize saving marine life over the reduced carbon emissions that wind development offers compared to more conventional energy sources.
VICTORY! Trump has promised to pause all offshore wind leases, which could save the North Atlantic right whale from extinction at the hands of industrial wind energy. It's incredible to watch Republicans steal the save-the-whales issue from Democrats. Video overview here: pic.twitter.com/qvlxSuXIGe
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) January 20, 2025
In apparent anticipation of Trump’s halt in offshore development, BOEM reportedly approved one more offshore wind project in the last days of the Biden administration. The agency offered a final approval to a project known as “Mayflower Wind,” expected to be built off the coasts of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts, which would “grandfather” in the project. In the event that Burgum halts future projects, those already approved are more likely to be completed.
Reports that Trump’s administration will not be friendly to wind development preceded the news that some companies would withdraw from offshore wind projects. On Sunday, the Boston Herald reported that the Italian company Prysmian Group announced it would no longer invest in a $300 million offshore wind project in Somerset, Massachusetts, though it did not name Trump as a factor in its decision.
“Prysmian is continuously evaluating market opportunities for our capacity to be aligned with demand,” the company announced, “to best serve our customers’ needs and to also carry out efficient and timely investments.”
“As a result of the consideration, including the strong growth opportunities in the U.S. and global cable markets, Prysmian has decided to not proceed with the purchase of the land in Somerset,” it concluded.
Opposition to offshore wind development skyrocketed in New Jersey in 2023 following a large number of whales, including dolphins, washing up on the sands of multiple boardwalks, shocking local families attempting to enjoy the traditional activities available there.
Point Pleasant Beach, under former mayor Kanitra and represented by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) in Congress, became a focal point of protest, holding a “Save the Whales” rally in February 2023.
“The commercial fishing is extremely upset with the visual observations of dead whales floating at sea,” Brick Wenzel, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey’s, fishing liaison and a longtime commercial fisherman, told Breitbart News in March 2023. “One vessel said they had seen 3 different whales in one trip. Another had parts of a whale come up in their net. Most of the captains are generational fishers and are in their 60s — No one has heard of or seen anything like the carnage being witnessed.”
“In my 50+ years of working on the ocean, I have never seen anything remotely like this,” Captain Robert Bogan of the Gambler, a party fishing boat in front of Point Pleasant Beach, wrote in a letter to Rep. Smith he shared with Breitbart News in August 2023. “Dead whales on our beach absolutely and logically have everything to do with the oceanic geo-surveys.”
“NOAA was so concerned about slowing our boats down to less than 10 knots (basically a crawl), so as not to strike a whale and yet they signed-off on these invasive surveys, and admitted there would be an ‘acceptable’ whale mortality involved,” he continued. “Now, they don’t want to admit there was any mortality coinciding with wind research.”
“Ocean Wind I and II,” the projects that prompted the protest in Point Pleasant Beach, were canceled in November 2023. The Danish company Ørsted, responsible for the projects, withdrew citing inflation skyrocketing under the Biden administration.
“Macroeconomic factors have changed dramatically over a short period of time, with high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks impacting our long-term capital investments,” Ørsted Group EVP and CEO Americas David Hardy said in a statement. “As a result, we have no choice but to cease development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2.”
