Trump halts in-construction wind farm off New York in "major escalation"

• Halting Equinor's multibillion-dollar project sent shock waves on Wednesday through the young U.S. industry.
• It's a "major escalation of regulatory assault on offshore wind," TD Cowen Washington Research Group said in a note that sees jeopardy for other projects that have begun construction.

Catch up quick: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on X that his agency will demand a halt pending "further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis."

• Interior didn't respond to a request for more info, and Burgum linked to coverage in the conservative Washington Free Beacon.
• That story shows a memo alleging "serious deficiencies."

How it works: The 810 megawatt Empire Wind 1 was slated to send enough power into New York to supply 500,000 homes, per Equinor. It was slated to start producing power in 2026.

• The company began laying rock in the marine region earlier this month.
• The project also supports onshore work at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, where per Equinor, more than 1,500 people have worked.
• The site is slated to serve as a staging area for offshore turbines, the project's operations and maintenance base, and onshore substation.

The big picture: Future projects were stifled at Trump 2.0's outset. And even before that, financial hurdles were hitting the sector, putting the Biden-era goal of 30 gigawatts installed by 2030 out of reach.

• A January executive order barred new lease sales and new permitting, while requiring review of existing leases. Burgum's memo notes both pending and existing permits are under review.
• EPA last month yanked an air permit for a separate proposed but frozen project called Atlantic Shores off New Jersey.

State of play: There's one large-scale commercial offshore wind project in operation — Ørsted's 132 megawatt South Fork Wind commissioned in 2024 that helps power Long Island.

• Five larger Atlantic Coast projects are in some phase of construction, including Dominion Energy's 2.6 gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts, and Ørsted's Revolution Wind in New England.

Equinor said it will "engage directly" with Interior to "understand the questions raised about the permits we have received from authorities."

• NY Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a statement, said she will "not allow this federal overreach to stand."
• "Doubling back to reconsider permits after projects are under construction sends a chilling signal to all energy investment," the American Clean Power Association said in a statement.

The other side: The anti-offshore wind group Protect our Coasts New Jersey cheered the move, alleging the project threatened marine navigation and commercial fishing.

The bottom line: The "messaging is clear" even though details are scarce, and "negative impacts for early stage construction projects are real," TD Cowen analysts write.

• They see lower risks for projects in more advanced stages of construction like Vineyard and CVOW, but add: "The only certainty here is uncertainty."