Shell Bails on Billion-Dollar Offshore Wind Bet as Trump Cracks Down

By William Mathis and Mitchell Ferman (Bloomberg) —

Shell Plc said it has written off almost $1 billion and withdrawn from a US offshore wind farm as President Donald Trump seeks to stymie the industry’s development with executive orders.

It’s the latest illustration of the reversal experienced by the nascent American offshore wind sector, which was championed by former President Joe Biden but suffered from soaring costs in recent years. With Trump in office, developers face the added obstacle of a president who’s set out to halt the industry.

In its quarterly earnings on Thursday, Shell disclosed a $996 million impairment related to an offshore wind farm known as Atlantic Shores, which had recently been granted final federal approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) under the Biden Administration.

“We just don’t see that it fits both our capabilities nor the returns that we would like,” Chief Financial Officer Sinead Gorman said on a call with reporters. “So we took the decision to effectively write that off and pause our involvement.”

The company has been developing the project in a joint venture with the renewables arm of Electricite de France SA.

EDF expects Atlantic Shores “to continue moving forward and contribute to the all-of-the-above and American energy-dominance strategy,” EDF Renewables said in a statement. The project “will provide urgently needed energy and jobs to the New Jersey economy and beyond.”

Last week, Trump appeared to target the Atlantic Shores development with a post on Truth Social, saying he hoped a wind farm off southern New Jersey would be “dead and gone.” The president worked with New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, a frequent critic of the project, to draft the executive orders that targeted the offshore wind industry on his first day in office. 

Aside from changes in American politics, Shell has been steadily moving away from offshore wind under Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan. While the company participated in a rush by European oil majors into the sector under his predecessor, Sawan has aimed to cut spending on projects that offer returns well below what Shell can make from oil and gas.

The Atlantic Shores joint venture agreed to pay some $780 million to lease an area in a record-setting federal auction in 2022 for offshore wind sites. Since then, rising interest rates and supply-chain issues have driven up costs for the industry, making it harder to invest. 

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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