Trump administration issues order to stop construction on New York offshore wind project

The Trump administration has issued an order to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully-permitted project.

He said it needs further review because it appears as though the Biden administration rushed the approval. The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind. It finalized the federal lease in March 2017, early in President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind.

The Trump administration issued an order Wednesday to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry. According to Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility Dominion Energy, though, its $10.7 billion offshore wind farm 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast is still going full speed ahead.

“Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) is more than 50% complete and remains on track to be completed at the end of 2026,” a Dominion Energy spokesperson said Thursday. 

According to public information from Dominion and Empire Wind’s developer Equinor, the New York project’s first ocean lease received full federal approval and permitting in March 2024, a month before Dominion’s CVOW project was fully approved.

However, Dominion got off to a faster start on offshore construction, installing its first six monopiles in May 2024. By the end of October 2024, it had installed 78 monopile foundations, out of 176 total planned. The 2.6-gigawatt project is expected to provide enough energy to power 660,000 homes.

In New York, offshore construction was set to begin in May on Equinor’s 54 turbines in the Empire Wind 1 lease. A second ocean lease known as Empire Wind 2 was in early-stage development.

CVOW is set to resume work installing monopiles in May, according to Dominion’s plans, and installing three of four new offshore substations, as well as “transition pieces” — yellow poles that will connect the underwater foundations to the above-water turbines.

Dominion said earlier this year it expects the offshore wind farm to be completed in 2026.

The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind to start providing power in 2026. Equinor finalized the federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in Trump’s first term. BOEM approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and onshore construction began that year.

Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. His first day in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily halting offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for all wind projects. Last month, the administration revoked the Clean Air Permit for an offshore wind project off the coast of New Jersey, Atlantic Shores. Construction on that wind farm had not yet begun.

Equinor said Wednesday it had just received a notification from BOEM and it will engage directly with the agency and the Interior Department to understand the questions raised about the permits. A spokesperson declined to comment on the fate of the project, which is located southeast of Long Island, New York.

The energy company has over $60 billion in investments across the U.S., including substantial oil, gas and renewable projects.

While Trump is focused on energy abundance, the American Clean Power industry association said halting construction of fully-permitted energy projects is the “literal opposite” of that agenda, and it sends a “chilling signal” to all energy companies. Climate Jobs New York, a coalition of labor unions, said New York needs offshore wind and other clean energy projects to help address rising energy costs and create jobs.

“It is out of touch to suggest that killing good jobs and energy sources is a good idea when working New Yorkers are struggling with rising costs of living and our grid needs stability,” the coalition said in a statement. The United States can’t be energy independent without offshore wind, it added.

The Biden administration sought to ramp up offshore wind as a climate change solution, setting national goals to deploy offshore wind energy, holding lease sales and approving nearly a dozen commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects. The nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm opened a year ago, a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York.

Trump began reversing the country’s energy policies his first day in office with a spate of executive orders aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal. The administration is reviewing all existing and pending offshore wind permits.

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this article.