Four Northeast state governors called on the Trump administration to hold a classified briefing on its allegations that offshore wind projects are a national security threat, charging the suspension of work on five East Coast projects is itself “creating both a national security and economic disaster.”
In a Dec. 24 letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy, Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut and Gov. Dan McKee of Rhode Island rejected the administration’s claim that new classified information has been obtained by the Department of Defense.
“It strains credulity to believe that vital, substantial projects that underwent many federal reviews and processes, including by the DoD, all of a sudden present new, existential, unforeseen threats,” the governors wrote.
“A significant portion of Vineyard Wind is complete and is supplying hundreds of megawatts to the region,” according to a statement by ISO New England. “Revolution Wind is also largely complete and the ISO anticipates the project to come online in 2026.”
Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project was shut down by the Interior Department in August – a move criticized then by ISO, and soon overturned in September by a federal court’s temporary restraining order
“Both projects are included in our near-term and future modeling and analyses to ensure adequate electricity for New England,” according to ISO. “These projects are particularly important to system reliability in the winter when offshore wind output is highest and other forms of fuel supply are constrained.”
“Beyond increasing risk to reliability, delays of new generating resources also will adversely affect New England’s economy and industrial growth, including potential future data centers.”
The Northeast governors’ letter raised similar issues, but as a pointed critique of Trump administration energy policies.
“By obstructing domestic power generation, you are inviting grid failure, surrendering the industries of the future, and threatening the economy and national security,” the governors argued. “By blocking gigawatts of domestic clean energy, you are effectively throttling the U.S. economy and handing a strategic advantage to foreign rivals who are building power generation as fast as they can.”
The Democratic governors concluded the Interior Department’s motivation is political:
“The sudden emergence of a new ‘national security threat’ appears to be less a legitimate, rational finding of fact and more a pretextual excuse to justify a predetermined outcome consistent with the President’s frequently stated personal opposition to offshore wind.”
The 90-day suspension order allows some work to continue, notably at the Vineyard Wind project. The order was hailed by offshore wind power critics, who had been pushing administration officials to take more dramatic action.
Those activists defended the Trump administration’s newest allegations, recalling earlier studies of radar interference from wind turbines, compiled by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2023.
