Trump Axes Massive Biden-Era Offshore Wind Farm Project

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is immediately halting all activity on a massive offshore wind farm project that was established by the Biden Administration, according to a report from the Daily Caller.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, which falls under the DOI, is halting activity on the “Revolution Wind” project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut effective immediately. President Donald Trump has long criticized wind farm projects, pointing to their notoriously unreliable output, foreign control of key components for wind projects and environmental concerns.

In recent weeks and months, the DOI has dealt a number of significant blows to the wind energy industry, including an end to Biden-era “preferential treatment” and moving to terminate the massive Lava Ridge Wind Project in southern Idaho. The latter project was green-lit just weeks before President Trump returned to office.

“Americans deserve energy that is affordable, reliable, and built to last — not experimental and expensive wind projects that are proven failures,” DOI deputy press secretary Aubrie Spady told the Daily Caller. “In line with President Donald Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, Interior is putting an immediate stop to these costly failures to deliver a stronger energy future and lower costs for American families. Like President Trump said, ‘the days of stupidity are over in the USA!’”

The Biden Administration had approved the Revolution Wind project in 2023, which is located on the federally-owned Outer Continental Shelf. Cancelling the project follows in line with the Trump Administration’s radical shift on energy policy, namely in shifting focus away from solar and wing projects in favor of traditional energy sources.

Trump signed an executive order directing the DOI to “revise any identified regulations, guidance, policies, and practices as appropriate and consistent with applicable law to eliminate any such preferences for wind and solar facilities” on July 7. The order fulfilled a popular campaign promise from the president to end his predecessor’s “green new deal” policies in favor of a “drill baby drill” agenda.

“Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS,” the president posted on Truth Social earlier this week. “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY! We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reiterated the administration’s opposition to wind farms in a social media post of his own, which noted that wind farms have depleted populations of eagles and other rare bird species. Offshore wind farms like Revolution Wind have also faced criticism for killing whales and dolphins, oftentimes from environmental groups that often support left-wing political causes and candidates.

“Wind projects are known to kill eagles, and climate extremists in the Biden admin still greenlit scores of these projects,” Burgum posted on X. “[The DOI] is enforcing the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to ensure that our national bird is not sacrificed for unreliable wind facilities!”

As President Trump insightfully said as he cleaned up
after Biden, “the days of stupidity are over in the USA.”

“In line with President Donald Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, Interior is putting an immediate stop to these costly failures to deliver a stronger energy future and lower costs for American families.”

Quite a few years before anyone publicly knew about this project, the USCG Academy ship simulators was tasked with generating this near exact wind farm in the ocean. I was the chief engineer and an operator/trainer of the facility 1991-2024.

It took a long time and a lot of effort with the both the graphics and the physics.

The purpose was to then place disabled tankers, cruise liners, VLCCs and pleasure craft in the tower field. Actual best of the best coxswains and ship drivers in the 1st and 3rd CG districts for various USCG cutters and patrol boats used the simulators to simulate and evaluate rescue operations.

Regardless what process was tried, everyone ended up in the water, vessels slammed into the towers, sank, major oil spills... every time... various WX conditions. Lost cutters as the prize crews tried their best.

We surmised the wind farm project was not going to advance with these results being fed back to DC up the chain.

We all wanted to throw up when we much later read the project was approved and construction was to start.

““Americans deserve energy that is affordable, reliable, and built to last — not experimental and expensive wind projects that are proven failures,” DOI deputy press secretary Aubrie Spady told the Daily Caller. “In line with President Donald Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, Interior is putting an immediate stop to these costly failures to deliver a stronger energy future and lower costs for American families. Like President Trump said, ‘the days of stupidity are over in the USA!’””

We do deserve energy that is “affordable, reliable, and built to last.” I was pleased when some months past I heard President Trump saying we need to develop our various ways of producing energy. I’m sure he must be aware that low cost oil will be less and less available as the easy to drill reserves are drilled and pumped out. Also, we and our grandchildren will continue to need a good supply of oil for all the other products that can be produced from it.

The main problem with other sources like solar and wind is that some try to go big without first testing methods and conditions on a smaller scale. When I go to my mountain cabin in West Virginia, it is interesting to see all the windmills turning far away on the unoccupied green hills there. Conditions there must be quite different than those out to sea several miles from shore. China learned the hard way when it set up vast fields of solar panels out in the sunny Gobi Desert. Sure there is lots of sun, but there is also lots of wind, sand and dust. Now these panels have to be swept clean almost every day.
c
In the past WV has been known for it’s important coal deposits, and especially mountain top removal of coal seams close to the surface. Once the coal has been removed and the leveled mountain top remediated, there is often a large area, sometimes 5 miles square, available for other use. Wind or solar installations could be a good use. One problem there is some companies are trying to put wind where it does not belong. The proposed wind towers are over 600 feet tall. But some are planned within 500 feet or less of existing homes. The manufacturer recommends nothing be built within 3 height distances from the wind towers. Accidental throw of a windmill arm during a storm can travel that far. For that community, zoned as Residential, over a dozen homes are within that 1800 foot safety zone. They are fighting in the legislature where those eager builders are trying to change the Residential classification for this community.

I am sure that windmills are already supplying jobs that are better and safer than coal mining, and since easy dig coal will eventually be gone, windmills and home solar will probably provide more jobs than coal mining in the future. Meanwhile, I hear that the people of West Texas also enjoy the fruits of alternative energy in their sunny, windy, wide open spaces. So I do hope Trump will go back to his more balanced statement regarding MAGA with all sources, rather than only drill, drill, drill.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.