Trump’s crusade against wind power is throwing an industry into turmoil

President Donald Trump is on a crusade to cripple the wind power industry, using his executive powers to throw projects well underway into chaos, even as the fallout risks landing on ratepayers and investors.

“We’re not allowing any windmills to go up,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon. “They’re ruining our country.”

“They’re ugly, they don’t work, they kill your birds,” Trump said. “They’re bad for the environment. And if you look at them from a house, your house is worth less than 50%. So I’m trying to have people learn about wind real fast.”

The comments came after Trump’s administration last week declared a halt to a massive wind farm off Rhode Island that is 80% complete, sending shares of the developer, Denmark’s Orsted, plunging Monday by 16% and drawing warnings of broad impacts from regional grid operators and power companies.

The administration also is laying plans to block another wind project off the coast of Maryland, according to court filings Monday.

Those moves follow previous actions this year against wind energy. The president has paused new permits for projects on federal land and launched an investigation into foreign-made wind turbines that could lead to hefty tariffs.

Friday’s emergency order, issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, cites national security concerns in stopping work on offshore wind turbines that make up a project called Revolution Wind. But it does not cite any specific threats, and the Defense Department had already reviewed and approved the project.

The move triggered an angry response from the governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut, who are counting on the 705-megawatt wind project to bring much-needed power to the regional electricity grid. Financial analysts warned that wind developers may stop investing in U.S. projects altogether.

“It was beyond my wildest imagination that something like this could happen to a multibillion dollar project that is nearly complete,” said Atin Jain, an energy analyst at BloombergNEF. “No financial model would have anticipated this type of action. It is beyond the boundaries of what any investor would have considered a reasonable risk.”

The stop-work order comes as the Trump administration works to undermine the United States’ transition to renewable energy sources, declaring wind and solar power unsightly and inefficient, and a “parasite” on the nation’s power system. It says consumers will be better served with more coal, gas and nuclear energy. The administration revealed in court documents Monday that it is reconsidering prior approval of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, a planned $6 billion development off the coast of Ocean City.

The federal government holds considerable sway over massive offshore wind developments, which require a yearslong, complicated permitting process that spans multiple agencies. The New England project, in the works for 13 years, is billed by local officials as a crucial component to meeting power demand in Connecticut and Rhode Island and state climate targets.

The Trump administration earlier this year halted a similar project off the coast of New York, which it agreed to allow to continue after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) eased her opposition to a natural gas pipeline that would run through her state.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said at a news conference Monday that he believes a deal can be brokered to get the Revolution Wind project back on track. But he said he is unaware “what the ask is” from the administration. Trump administration officials declined to respond to questions from The Washington Post.

Whatever happens with Revolution Wind, the outlook for more offshore wind power in the United States has dimmed considerably.

Even before the latest stop-work order, BloombergNEF had reduced its forecast for the amount of offshore wind that would come online in the United States by 2030 from 11.3 gigawatts to 6.1 gigawatts. The forecast shows that under current conditions, no further offshore wind power would come online at all between 2030 and 2035, a stark change from BNEF’s forecast in late 2024 that showed an additional 16.5 gigawatts expected.

Orsted, which declined to answer questions, said in a statement that it intends to complete the Revolution Wind project and will fight the Trump administration’s order in court if necessary. Supporters of the project in Congress say the national security concerns the administration cites are fictional, noting the federal government already completed a thorough security review during the permitting process and the Defense Department gave Revolution Wind a green light.

“They are using these excuses to create a false narrative.” said Kirk Lippold, a retired U.S. Navy officer who was in command of the USS Cole when it was attacked by terrorists in 2000. Lippold has since become a strong advocate for shoring up U.S. energy security with renewable power.

The abrupt shift in the outlook for wind power is unnerving a wide swath of the energy industry, which considers offshore wind a vital component to a stable power grid. Wind power can provide large volumes of energy at times when electricity is in highest demand and the grid is under stress, according to power company officials and regulators. There are few alternatives to projects already under construction, as equipment back-orders and supply chain challenges have pushed the timeline for building new gas plants to five years or more. New nuclear plants take even longer.

ISO New England, which operates the power grid in six states, warned in a statement that stopping work on Revolution Wind will increase the risk of outages in the region, as well as “adversely affect New England’s economy and industrial growth, including potential future data centers.” It warned such “unpredictable risks and threats” to large energy projects well into development “will stifle future investments, increase costs to consumers, and undermine the power grid’s reliability.”

The same worries are rippling through the New England Power Generators Association, which represents a broad coalition of energy companies that supply 95 percent of the region’s electricity.

“We need all of these energy technologies,” said Dan Dolan, the group’s president. Dolan is among many industry experts warning that if the project is left in limbo, utility customers will pay a price in the form of higher bills and increased risk of blackouts.

Revolution Wind is one of five offshore wind projects that were already well into construction when Trump took office. Most in the energy industry expected Trump would not interfere with them because the investments had already been made and the electricity from the projects is key to helping alleviate a power “emergency” the administration declared.

The projects are also employing hundreds of union workers as Trump looks to expand his support from organized labor. But union leaders are joining Democrats in attacking Trump’s action against Revolution Wind.

“This project isn’t some pipe dream,” Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, said in a statement. “It’s real steel in the water and $1.3 billion in investment already on the ground. … The ripple effects of this decision will be felt across the entire country.”