Trump administration moves to revoke permit for Massachusetts offshore
wind project
[September 20, 2025] By
JENNIFER McDERMOTT and MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has moved to block a
Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an
industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as
“ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural
gas.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, filed a motion in
federal court Thursday seeking to take back its approval of the
SouthCoast Wind project’s “construction and operations plan.'' The plan
is the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start
putting turbines in the water.
SouthCoast Wind, to be built in federal waters about 23 miles south of
Nantucket, is expected to construct as many as 141 turbines to power
about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The Interior Department action is the latest by the Trump administration
in what critics call an "all-out assault” on the wind energy industry.
Trump's administration has stopped construction on major offshore wind
farms, revoked wind energy permits and paused permitting, canceled plans
to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development
and stopped $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind
projects.
The moves are a complete reversal from the Biden administration, which
approved construction of 11 large offshore wind projects to generate
enough clean energy to power more than 6 million homes. The projects now
face uncertain futures under Trump.
Last week, the Interior Department asked a federal judge in Baltimore to
cancel a previous approval by BOEM to build an offshore wind project in
Maryland. The ocean agency has concluded that its prior weighing of the
project's impacts was “deficient” and intends to reconsider that
analysis to make a new decision, the department said.
Developer U.S. Wind has not yet begun construction, but plans for the
Maryland Offshore Wind Project call for up to 114 turbines to power more
than 718,000 homes.
BOEM had approved SouthCoast’s operations plan on Jan. 17, 2025, three
days before Trump’s second term began.
“Based on its review to date, BOEM has determined that the COP approval
may not have fully complied with the law" and "may have failed to
account for all the impacts that the SouthCoast Wind Project may cause,"
Interior said in its legal filing. The agency asked a federal judge to
allow reconsideration of the project.
[to top of second column] |
In a statement, developer Ocean Winds said the company “intends to
vigorously defend our permits in federal court.”
"Stable permitting for American infrastructure projects should be of top
concern for anyone who wants to see continued investment in the United
States,'' the statement said.
Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition
of labor unions and environmental groups, said Trump “is threatening
good jobs while he pursues his senseless vendetta against offshore
wind."
Pulling energy project permits and canceling lease sales isn't new.
Biden revoked the permit to build the long-disputed Keystone XL oil
pipeline on his first day in office, halting construction. He canceled
scheduled oil and gas lease sales.
But Trump's efforts to dismantle the offshore wind industry are much
more extensive than the way Biden targeted fossil fuels, said Kristoffer
Svendsen, assistant dean for energy law at the George Washington
University Law School. He thinks offshore wind developers will now see
the U.S. as too risky.
“They have plenty of options. They can invest in Europe and Asia. There
are good markets to invest in offshore wind. It's just the U.S. is not a
good market to invest in,” he said.
The Trump administration has stopped construction on two major offshore
wind farms, so far. One of them, the Empire Wind project for New York,
was allowed to resume construction. The Revolution Wind project for
Rhode Island and Connecticut is paused, and both the developer and the
two states sued in federal courts.
The Danish energy company Orsted is building Revolution Wind. The Danish
government owns a majority stake in the company.
Besides SouthCoast, the Trump administration has said it is
reconsidering approvals for another wind farm off the Massachusetts
coast, New England Wind. It previously revoked a permit for the Atlantic
Shores project in New Jersey.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
