Stock Photo:Tom Buysse/Shutterstock
(Bloomberg) —
The Trump administration’s ongoing review of offshore wind projects will feature different treatment for projects actively under development versus those that have merely been proposed, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday.
Burgum’s comments during a visit to a natural gas export terminal in Louisiana suggest the administration may apply less scrutiny to wind farms that have already secured federal permits and are under construction.
President Donald Trump indefinitely halted the sale of new offshore wind leases on his first day in office and pausing permitting of all wind projects on federal lands and waters. He also raised the specter of outright cancellations for existing leases. The president directed the Interior Department to review the “necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases” and “identifying any legal bases for such removal.”
Burgum made clear that review is underway.
“By executive order, we are looking at all the wind projects that are going on, and existing ones will receive different treatment than those that are proposed,” he said. “But I won’t be pre-determinant. We are in the process of taking a look at those.”
In an interview Thursday with Bloomberg Television, Burgum criticized the cost of building wind farms at sea, saying they’re nearly three times as expensive as ones on land.
“These projects wouldn’t exist without all of the tax subsidies that they’ve received,” Burgum said. “This is not a young or new industry. It should be able to stand on its own by now.”
While offshore wind has thrived in Northern Europe, where subsidies bolstered projects, the industry has for years languished in the US, where developers must navigate a phalanx of permitting requirements and legal challenges. Eleven commercial-scale offshore wind farms won federal approvals under former President Joe Biden. Before that, fewer than 100 megawatts of offshore wind generation capacity existed in the US.
Trump has repeatedly singled out the offshore wind industry for criticism, and his first-day moves against the nascent sector have spooked developers of even existing projects. Ongoing litigation challenging wind farm approvals could present an additional opening for Trump’s Interior Department to revisit earlier approvals.
Burgum said the permitting pause is appropriate.
“People are concerned about the whales that have been dying. People are concerned about blades falling off and washing up on shore. So offshore wind certainly deserved the pause,” he said. “That, I think, is the sentiment of the people that live in those communities and President Trump is responding to those citizens.”
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