A global green energy company on Friday announced that the Trump administration had halted its construction of an offshore wind farm being built 15 miles off Rhode Island’s coast.
Ørsted announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, an extensive offshore energy project at 80% completion, according to the company.
“Ørsted is evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,” the company wrote in a statement. “This includes engagement with relevant permitting agencies for any necessary clarification or resolution as well as through potential legal proceedings, with the aim being to proceed with continued project construction towards COD in the second half of 2026.”
The marks follow through on Trump’s commitment to target wind and solar projects if he won reelection as he campaigned for a second term last year.
“They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is,” Trump said of wind farms during a rally in May 2024. “They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.”
Revolution Wind was authorized by the Biden administration two years ago. The $1.5 billion project promised to provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
However, the wind industry has weathered a number of storms in the Trump era due to concerns from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and others that the projects are highly “inefficient” and “unreliable” uses of federal lands compared to energy sources with smaller footprints, such as nuclear, gas, and oil.
Federal subsidization of such projects has been targeted, including through Trump’s recently signed into law “big, beautiful” bill, while government reviews authorizing them have become more stringent, lengthening the already bureaucratic permitting process. Burgum said in late July that such actions were warranted due to the belief that Biden-era officials had given green energy developments “special treatment.”
Burgum has canceled several high-profile wind energy projects previously authorized under the Biden administration, aside from the Rhode Island development, including a massive Idaho wind farm earlier this month.
“We are protecting tens of thousands of acres from harmful wind policy while shielding the interests of rural Idaho communities,” he said at the time.
Approval for a wind energy project off the coast of Long Island was also rescinded in April, although Burgum later reversed course, allowing construction on the renewable energy farm to continue.
Instead of pursuing energy development branded as climate-friendly under the Biden administration, Burgum has pursued oil and gas projects, which were restricted during the Biden era in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While wind projects are still an option for regions where the elements are conducive to the policy, “not every state is lucky to have the resources” that lend themselves to wind farms, Burgum has argued, saying the U.S. has “to have the right balance.”
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“President Trump is avoiding the Biden blackouts and brownouts that were potentially put right on our doorstep because of the energy policies of the prior administration. He’s going 180 degrees in the other direction with energy dominance,” Burgum said in April.
The Trump administration has also accelerated the development of nuclear energy resources, a policy that has received bipartisan support, as the carbon-free power is one of the most reliable sources of energy.
