Donald Trump's administration has dealt a heavy blow to large-scale wind energy projects on the East Coast, according to the New York Times.
What's happening?
Five major in-progress wind farm projects have come to a screeching halt after the Department of the Interior paused offshore leases on Monday. It cited national security concerns around radar interference from turbines. Developers, for their part, have said their designs were made in close collaboration with military officials.
The affected projects are Vineyard Wind 1 in Massachusetts, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind in New York, and Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
They collectively encompass billions of dollars in investments and have created thousands of jobs, according to offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward.
The pause comes shortly after a federal judge deemed a previous wind project ban by the administration to be "arbitrary and capricious." Some developers said delays to address concerns cost them upward of $50 million each week.
"This appears to be a second, even more lawless and erratic stop work order, reviving the Trump administration's prior failed attempt to halt construction of Revolution Wind," said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong in a press release. "We went to court over this before. There is a court order blocking their prior stop work order and this appears to be a new brazen attempt to circumvent that order."
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Why is wind energy important?
AI data centers are dramatically accelerating energy demands on top of normal residential growth. This will require loads more electrical generation, though President Trump's preference has proven to be for other sources.
Wind energy is an important alternative to aging, expensive, and polluting coal and gas power sources. Wind energy is reliable and inexpensive, and it's imperative to harness its ability to generate power at scale without atmospheric pollution.
Air pollution contributes to increasingly destructive weather patterns, which incur their own costs. These include rising housing insurance premiums in the face of floods and fires. These forces also increase grocery prices due to ravaged agricultural operations.
What's being done about wind energy?
Further legal action is likely in the works in order to get these five offshore wind projects to move ahead.
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"The project has been vetted and approved through every layer of federal and state regulatory process, including a careful review of the issues raised in this announcement," said Attorney General Tong. "Every day this project is stalled is another day of lost work … . We are evaluating all legal options, and this will be stopped just like last time."
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