Offshore wind is a growing renewable energy source that provides one of the safest and most ethical solutions to the energy crisis. It plays a crucial role in the fight against climate change. Unlike burning fossil fuels, wind turbines do not generate any of the greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the planet. It is a solution requiring little to no land use, few resources, and produces little waste.
Manufacturers build either fixed bottom foundations or floating platforms for the turbines to sit atop. Fixed bottom foundations are used for shallower waters, while floating platforms are used in waters above 60 meters in depth. Therefore, offshore wind farms can also defy the “not in my backyard” narrative, with some turbines creating energy so far off the shore, they are out of sight.
This technology is currently being implemented on a global scale, with the majority of global wind farms existing outside the U.S.
America’s first five turbines, a 30 MW project developed by Deepwater Wind (now owned by Orsted) went live in 2016 providing 100% energy to Block Island with the excess going to Rhode Island’s mainland, powering 17,000 homes.
PROGRESS 2021-2024
Although we endured four years of federal inactivity from 2017-2020, the Biden administration swiftly announced a goal of 30 GW from offshore wind by 2030. Significant support for that goal came from their Inflation Reduction Act – passed in 2022 –which included multiple provisions related to offshore wind, including tax credits. By 2024, the Department of the Interior had approved more than 15 gigawatts of clean energy from ten offshore wind projects, enough to power nearly 5.25 million homes.
- In May 2021, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved Vineyard Wind, calling for 84-turbines to be installed in the Atlantic Ocean about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Together, they will have the ability to generate about 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 400,000 homes. As of February 2024, Vineyard Wind already had five turbines operating at full capacity generating enough to power 30,000 homes.
- In May, 2021, BOEM gave its blessing to two areas off the California coast.
- In October, 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency had begun to identify, demarcate and eventually lease federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine and off the coasts of the Mid-Atlantic States, North Carolina and South Carolina, California and Oregon, to wind power developers by 2025. BOEM has now held four offshore wind lease sales, with one in August 2024 in the Central Atlantic.
- In January 2022, BOEM’s review of the South Fork Wind Farm, a 12-turbine, 132 MW project southeast off Long Island, with a cable landing in Wainscott, a hamlet within the Town of East Hampton, was complete and approved. By March, 2024, that South Fork Wind Project was fully operational, with power being delivered to 70,000 homes.
- In February, 2022, the U.S. netted a record $4.37 billion from the sale of six additional offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. When these turbines are built and operational, the auctioned acres are expected to generate up to 7,000 megawatts, enough to power nearly 2 million homes.
- The Interior Department has said between that project and others currently under review, it hopes to see some 2,000 turbines churning from Massachusetts to North Carolina by 2030.
- In April 2024, the DOE announced an additional $48 million in funding for offshore wind energy research and development. This announcement comes with a report, “The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Offshore Wind,” which notes that the U.S. offshore wind market is at an inflection point, poised for liftoff.
- By May 2024, there were three fully operational wind projects powering 90,000 homes: the Block Island Wind Farm (Rhode Island), the two-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Pilot Project, and the South Fork Wind Project (New York).
OFFSHORE WIND UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
President Trump’s hostility towards offshore wind can perhaps be traced back to his unsuccessful attempt to block the construction of an offshore wind farm in view of one of his Scottish golf courses. Or, perhaps renewable energy simply conflicts with his support of fossil fuels. For whatever reason, Trump has blasted wind energy, calling wind turbines ugly and expensive, and claiming offshore wind turbines are killing whales (a claim with no evidence to support it). His administration also states a concern for energy security and national security as it opposes offshore wind development.
- On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order halting approvals of all new offshore wind farms.
- Though the executive order only targeted new offshore wind farms, the Trump Administration next began challenging offshore wind farms that had already been approved, or even were already far along in construction, causing a crisis for the wind industry.
- On April 16, Trump issued a stop-work order for Empire Wind, an offshore wind project off the coast of New York and New Jersey, citing “rushed permits.” After pressure from Governor Kathy Hochul, Trump reversed the order on May 19, but the company reported $1 billion in losses due to the delay.
- In July 2025, the Department of the Interior announced four policy measures including the termination of Wind Energy Areas, which are pre-approved zones for offshore wind development leasing, and a policy to stop "preferential treatment for wind projects.”
- On August 4, BOEM rescinded its offshore renewable energy leasing schedule.
- On August 21, the Administration launched a trade investigation on imported wind turbines, again citing national security concerns.
- On August 22, the Trump administration signaled in a court filing that it plans to rescind federal approval for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project. That facility had not yet begun construction but would consist of up to 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md.
- On August 22, the Trump Administration halted construction on Revolution Wind, a $4 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, despite the project being 80% In a letter to Orsted, the Danish company constructing the farm, BOEM cited the “protection of national security interests” as a rationale for halting work. These national security interests remain unspecified, and there is little legal precedent for halting a project that has already received federal approval and permits. If it would be completed, Revolution Wind would provide renewable power to more than 350,000 homes across Rhode Island and Connecticut.
- On August 28, the administration withdrew a $716 million loan guarantee approved by the Biden administration to upgrade and expand transmission infrastructure to accommodate a now-threatened offshore wind project in New Jersey.
- On August 29, the Transportation Department canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects, the latest attack by the Trump administration on the reeling U.S. offshore wind industry. Funding for projects in 11 states was rescinded, including $435 million for a floating wind farm in Northern California and $47 million for the Maryland Offshore Wind project.
- On September 1, the Democratic governors of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island released a letter warning that revoking permits for offshore wind farms could be destabilizing for a wide range of energy projects. “The U.S. markets operate on certainty,” the governors wrote. “Canceling projects that have already been fully permitted — including some near completion — sends the worrisome message to investors that the work can be stopped on a whim.”
- On September 2, the White House instructed a half-dozen government agencies to draft plans to thwart the country’s offshore wind industry.
- On September 3, the Trump administration said in another court filing that it also intended to reconsider federal approvals for the New England Wind project, about 20 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Construction has not yet begun. If completed it would be one of the largest offshore wind projects in the country powering 900,000 with renewable energy.
- On December 8 President Trump’s executive order to block the development of the approved offshore wind farms was vacated by a coalition of 17 states who declared the order was unlawful.
- On December 22, 2025 the Interior Department halted 5 wind farms off the East Coast, saying they posed national security risks, essentially gutting the country’s nascent offshore wind industry in a sharp escalation of President Trump’s crusade against the renewable energy source. The decision injected uncertainty into $25 billion worth of projects that were expected to power more than 2.5 million homes and businesses across the Eastern United States, according to Turn Forward, an offshore wind advocacy group. The five wind farms were projected together to create about 10,000 jobs.
2026 OffShore Wind Status
Early in 2026 and after much back and forth between the Trump administration and the federal courts, the following East Coast offshore wind projects were permitted to move forward as judges decided the President’s halt on development was "arbitrary and capricious". The Interior Department’s fifth attempt to shut down the five wind farms under construction on the East Coast was finally entirely squashed in February, 2026. Judges were not convinced that Sunrise Wind and the other proposed wind farms were a severe threat to national security as the Trump administration had suggested.
- Revolution Wind (Rhode Island/Connecticut): This project was given permission, on January 12, by a federal judge, to resume construction on this Orsted project. The project is now more than 90% complete, and began delivering power to the grid on March 13, 2026. At completion, Revolution Wind will deliver power to 350,000 homes.
- Empire Wind (New York): A federal judge ruled, on January 15, that work could resume on this Equinor project, citing that the pause was an "unjustified" change in position. 60% complete, the project is scheduled to begin delivering its first power in late 2026 before reaching full commercial operation in 2027, supplying energy to 500,000 homes.
- Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (Virginia): A federal judge granted Dominion Energy a preliminary injunction on January 16, 2026, permitting work to resume on this project—the largest in the U.S.—after finding the stop-work order caused "irreparable harm". The $11.5 billion project is over 70% complete and began delivering power to the grid in March 2026. Located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, it will use 176 turbines to generate 2.6 GW, powering up to 660,000 homes. Full operational completion is slated for early 2027.
- Vineyard Wind (Massachusetts): This completed project off Martha’s Vineyard was granted permission by a federal judge to resume construction on January 28. The energy produced at this site is connected to the Massachusetts grid and will deliver power to 400,000 homes.
- Sunrise Wind (New York): Located off the coast of New York, this project, which is over 50% complete, was given, on February 2, permission by a federal judge to resume construction. It is expected to be fully operational in 2027, providing energy to nearly 600,000 New York homes.
Other 2026 Trump Challenges to Offshore Wind Development
After its losses in court, the Trump administration pivoted to a new strategy: enacting a roughly $2.6 billion buyback strategy, paying major developers to abandon offshore wind leases and redirect capital into fossil fuels, natural gas, and LNG production.
- On March 23, the Trump administration made their first deal –with French energy company Total Energies, in which the company’s two U.S. offshore wind projects under construction in New York and North Carolina would be abandoned. In return, the Justice Department would reimburse the company $928 million for its original bid on the lease, and Total Energies would shift its investment to natural gas infrastructure.
- On April 27, the S. Department of the Interior announced an $885 million payout to Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind to terminate their leases off the coasts of New York/New Jersey and Morro Bay, California, in exchange for oil and LNG investments.
- On June 17, the U.S. Department of the Interior reached an $765 million buyout agreement with Invenergy voluntarily terminating four offshore wind leases across California, Maine, and New York, with funds redirected to natural gas and geothermal plants.
- On June 29, the Trump administration made a deal with Duke Energy paying them $129 million to cancel their offshore wind project off the coast of North Carolina. The company would “refocus” those funds into “additional generating capacity, which may include advancing new nuclear and natural gas generation, and grid ” This is the ninth offshore wind lease area the Trump administration has struck an agreement to buy back.
Across the nine lease areas, the administration has agreed to pay more than $2.6 billion, and is stipulating that the companies use the recovered funding for specific projects — such as oil, gas and geothermal.
Legal Pushback
- On June 2, 2026 attorneys general for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont sued the Trump administration over its deal with Total Energies stating that the deal threatens New York’s economy and strips citizens of a sustainable, affordable energy source. The case is ongoing.
- On June 23, 2026, the state of California announced its plans to sue the U.S. Department of the Interior and several other parties over the Trump administration’s agreements with offshore wind developers to “buy back” their leases for several projects, including Golden State Wind off the coast of California.
Summary
All five major commercial-scale East Coast offshore wind sites are operating following the overruling of President Trump’s “stop-work orders”. The next steps for these projects will be continuing to develop long-distance transmission lines, sending energy from places with optimal conditions for offshore wind sites to places hungry for inexpensive and reliable energy.
President Trump has still found a successful way to diminish the growth of the offshore wind farm industry, working around federal orders and paying out companies to cancel their offshore plans. The full economic effects have yet to be felt as union workers are being stripped of jobs promised to them at the conception of these projects. Additionally, the environmental impacts are undoubtedly detrimental as the current administration delays a necessary shift to renewables and expands the fossil fuel industry. As a result, the offshore wind industry has declined during the first quarter of 2026.
