US Halts $5 Billion New York Offshore Wind Project Mid-Build
- Reference: 0177056763
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/17/2217200/us-halts-5-billion-new-york-offshore-wind-project-mid-build
- Source link:
> In its most aggressive attack against offshore wind yet, the Trump administration [1]halted the $5 billion Empire Wind 1 , already under construction off New York's coast. Norwegian developer Equinor announced yesterday that it received notice from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) ordering Empire Wind 1 to halt all activities on the outer continental shelf until BOEM has completed its review. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum [2]posted this tweet yesterday: ".@Interior, in consultation with @HowardLutnick, is directing @BOEM to immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis."
>
> Burgum gave no indication of what insufficiencies there were in the approval process for the fully permitted offshore wind project, despite Trump's recent declaration of a national energy emergency that speeds up permitting processes. The commercial lease for the 810-megawatt (MW) Empire Wind 1's federal offshore wind area was signed in March 2017 during the first Trump administration. It was approved by the Biden administration in November 2023 and began construction in 2024. The project is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Empire Wind 1, which was due to come online in 2027, has the potential to power 500,000 New York homes.
Equinor says it's considering appealing the order.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statement: "Every single day, I'm working to make energy more affordable, reliable and abundant in New York and the federal government should be supporting those efforts rather than undermining them. Empire Wind 1 is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1,000 good-paying union jobs as part of a growing sector that has already spurred significant economic development and private investment throughout the state and beyond. As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York's economic future."
[1] https://electrek.co/2025/04/17/trump-admin-ny-offshore-wind-mid-build/
[2] https://x.com/SecretaryBurgum/status/1912590753236427060
When I was little (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was a little kid, I remember watching Captain Planet and thinking that it was a gross oversimplification since obviously people couldn't be such petty villains. And I thought that even more so when I got older and used it as an example of how when dealing with environmental issues one had to realize that people one disagreed with were not Captain Planet villains. But the last few years have shown I was just wrong. Captain Planet level environmental villains who really do want to just destroy things really exist. And unfortunately they are now in control of the US government.
Re:When I was little (Score:4, Insightful)
This administration is just itching to turn the USA into one of those shit hole countries as they call them. The rest of the world is fine watching the empire implode as they will do just fine without it.
If you're in the oligarchy in those shit holes (Score:1)
You are living very very well. Remember the thank you fucking relatives and your local dipshit right wing slashdot lurker
What pisses me off the most is the majority of those dipshits are baby boomers and older Gen X and they got theirs fuck all the rest of us. They bought property when it was cheap because they came up during the time when America was a socialist country pretending to be a capitalist country. So they had subsidized schools all the way up through college and heavily subsidized housing al
Re: (Score:2)
> This administration is just itching to turn the USA into one of those shit hole countries as they call them. The rest of the world is fine watching the empire implode as they will do just fine without it.
To be fair, that is the only thing the current US administration is doing a somewhat reasonable job at.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why is the Venn diagram of people who use the phrase TDS and people who read rubbish tabloids like the NYPost a perfect circle?
Speaking of derangement, I love how you complain about rocks destroying habitats (ignoring that fact that breakwater rocks make for excellent artificial reefs) and then immediately complain about commercial fishing being affected (something which objectively destroys habitats). The mental gymnastics resulting in a faceplant of ignorance on the dismount is fascinating to watch.
I real
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These people are not capable of building anything. Only destroying.
Something something (Score:2)
Party of small government.
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> Party of small government.
As someone who - regardless of administration - prefers to keep government on the leaner side, I ask myself why the federal government is paying for New York's project? It's not me being against New York, but if it is so important to Hochul, shouldn't New Yorkers pay for the project since it... well... pretty specifically helps New York? (I'd say the same for my home state of CA...)
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Why do you think that either state or federal government is paying anything here?
Re:Something something (Score:4, Informative)
This isn't about the federal government paying for anything. The Trump administration is trying to withdraw the permits to build it.
Re: (Score:2)
Found the racist.
Let me guess. You're part of the "damage assessment team" that's trying to figure out why you lost the last election?
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't take a genius. It was inflation -- or rather high prices because by the time the election came around inflation was low again, but grocery bills were shockingly high. The pitch the Trump campaign made outside it's core of nativist and racist supporters was that Trump was going to bring prices down on day 1 of his administration.
Re: (Score:3)
You know, at some point, you people will have to make up your mind: Are you one country ? Or are you 50 countries ?
When I was still travelling regularly all over the US east of the mississipi for business and leisure the American flag was everywhere, I heard the national antem all the time, etc. But whenever you learn that the federal governement spends some money or applies federal law in some state, you all go ape shit and scream blody murder. "States Rights !!!!!! State Rights!!!!!"
Every country in the w
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> "States Rights !!!!!! State Rights!!!!!"
Don't be silly. States rights are only relevant in upholding the right to own slaves and the right to to not pee next to black people.
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It's even stupider than that. The ones who are squealing that the govt should never do anything for the public good are typically in the red states that get more than their proportionate share of the federal money because their own state governments are reluctant to spend on anything that will help the poor or middle class.
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"State's rights" is a cop-out Republican politicians bring up when they want to pass the buck on an issue to a different politician (at the state level). Don't confuse that with actual belief in the concept.
Among the general population, it was only about 1 in 5 that voted Trump. I'd be surprised if half of them could even articulate their leaders' spiel about "state's rights". So you're looking at a tenth, of the population who gives a shit about that. And I think that's being generous.
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> shouldn't New Yorkers pay for the project since it... well... pretty specifically helps New York?
(Ignoring for the moment that this specific issue has nothing to do with funding.)
So... you think that blue states should stop subsidizing red states? There should be no federal disaster response? Why do you think we even have a federal government?
> As someone who - regardless of administration - prefers to keep government on the leaner side
Regardless of administration? You're not paying attention.
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Because we all know that every electron excited by this project will stay in the State of New York, yeah?
Nope, Connecticut and New Jersey won't see a single excited electron, because we all know that power lines ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CROSS STATE LINES.
Are you serious with this?
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It's not the federal government paying here. It's the federal government terminating permits investors need to build the project.
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> since it... well... pretty specifically helps New York?
Power is fungible. If New York is importing power now, producing more of it locally will let them do less of that, and then there will be more power available elsewhere. It will either allow reducing prices (heh heh) or enable additional enterprises in other locations, allowing them to grow. In some places there is little available capacity, and new service is on hold until some arrives...
Talk us through this one, Musk (Score:2)
Is Trump still "Right about everything" ?
Is climate change real ?
How do you live with yourself ?
What will you tell your kids ?
"Approved by the Biden administration" (Score:3)
There's your answer, simple as that.
Oh it was initially signed by Trump? Well why did Joe Biden let him do that?
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> What should the people of New York expect to pay for the electricity produced by this wind project? It's difficult to find a recent and unbiased source on this, I did find on Wikipedia that a 2014 study from the IPCC showing offshore wind being relatively expensive:
$155/MWh which is $0.15/kWh - [1]https://www.equinor.com/news/2... [equinor.com]
[1] https://www.equinor.com/news/20240604-solidifies-new-york-offtake-contract-empire-wind-1
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> $155/MWh which is $0.15/kWh
So, while lower than average cost for New York it is higher than what many other states pay.
[1]https://poweroutage.us/electri... [poweroutage.us]
They can't do better than this in New York? How can other states have so much lower costs on average?
I realize this could be considered a biased source but there's a chart in this article showing a number of options that are sources of lower cost electricity: [2]https://www.generationatomic.o... [generationatomic.org]
New York can't do utility scale solar instead? This offshore energy project looks to be well
[1] https://poweroutage.us/electricity-rates
[2] https://www.generationatomic.org/nuclear-power-is-more-affordable-than-you-think/
Re:What is the expected LCOE of the electricity? (Score:5, Insightful)
And what does that have to do with anything?
This is a project that is currently under construction, with permits granted. Now they want to revoke the permits by fiat. This will end up in federal court, where Trump is going to waste everyone's time and take it to the Supreme Court because he wants to stick it to New York Democrats, and he doesn't give a shit who gets hurt along the way.
Notice I haven't said anything specific about this project, because it doesn't matter. There's processes for doing this kind of thing, and this isn't that process. This is more of the petty bullshit Trump is always pulling to stick it to his enemies. I don't give a crap if this is a bridge project, an energy project, or a maritime dredging project - it doesn't matter. The permits were issued, and "Biden sucks" is not sufficient legal premise to revoke them and try to stick it to New York in a 2-fer.
Going into some kind of wonky convoluted "anticipated cost of the electricity" is missing the forest for a very specific tree - this government is a tyrannical dumpster fire, and you're worried about a few cents per kWh, maybe, but you can't find a source that isn't 10 years old.
Open your fucking eyes. See the forest.
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One party stops, starts, holds, restarts, restops pipelines, oil leases and power plants for the last 4 years. The employee count on those projects drawfs this tinny offshore project. This is pure private investment that just needs the federal goverment to contine to say ok, and is largely regulated by willing states.
Offshore wind always has a federal government component, a loan guarantee, or a power buy agreement that needs the federal government active participation.
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Since Trump doesn't follow any due process, why should NY? He pulls the permits and the state shrugs.
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> ...but you can't find a source that isn't 10 years old.
If you'd like to offer a newer source then you are welcome to do so.
I would not call "a few cents per kWh" a trivial matter since over time that can add up to a lot of money that didn't need to be spent. It can mean the loss of a lot of jobs in New York because businesses chose to go to a state with lower energy costs instead. For a business that does recycling of steel or aluminum their highest cost is raw material, their second highest cost is in electricity. If the governor of New York likes recyclin
The People Voted For This (Score:2)
And a lot of them think that Trump is doing a great job. A savior, actually. MAGA.
Then there are people who stayed home and didn't bother to vote. Some were MAGA types as well but many many more were people just too busy too tired or too complacent to vote. Or stupidly thought that even if Trump was back in office again sensible people would contain him.
So there you have it. Minority rule by assholes.
Re:The People Voted For This (Score:4, Funny)
> And a lot of them think that Trump is doing a great job. A savior, actually. MAGA.
This morning I saw a report on how Trump's support has changed since inauguration. I was surprised to hear that it is quite stable with Republicans -- just a few percent slippage to the negative, comparable to what he experienced in 2017 at the same time in his term.
However, support among independents has cratered. He's losing them fast, in many areas: trade, tariffs, the economy, foreign policy, and so on. But the "buyer's remorse" has yet to kick in for the MAGA crowd.
Re: (Score:2)
That's the beauty of having your very own propaganda ecosystem that all the cultists never stray from - they only hear the echo chamber, and nothing going on outside of it.
It makes it very easy to discount everything that isn't said on Fox Noise as "fake news" or "TDS" while having absolutely no context or information whatsoever.
People not completely devoted to the "Everything must be Conservative(tm) all day every day" ideology are more likely to get the message, and that's why there's some fraying at the
Re: (Score:2)
It's not surprising that Republican support hasn't changed much, because of poll methodology. If they want to sample so many "Republicans", they don't check voter registrations, they just call people up and ask their party affiliation. But feelings of party affiliation change depending on your feeling about the party, or in the case of the Republicans, the party leader. So many "never Trumpers" who were previously lifelong self-identified "Republicans" are identifying as independent now.
Re: (Score:2)
Just another indicator that conservatives have lower intelligence. They eventually will find out, but at that time most of the damage will be done and it will not be easy or fast to fix and might even be impossibl to undo.
Next week... (Score:2)
he'll start throwing shelter dogs and nuclear waste into industrial blenders and then pumping it into the water supply. Puppies and Plutonium instead of fluoride.
Beautiful Clean Coal (Score:2)
Trump hates windmills.
ROLL COAL
A little help from our friends (Score:2)
Maybe Gov Hochul can ask her friend Mayor Eric Adams for some help. He seems to know how to make a deal with the Trump administration.
Windmills are woke (Score:3)
That's all there is too it. It's as simple as that. There is no logic, no rationale, no goal, the only ethos is ideological purity along completely arbitrary and bizarre culture war squabbles and identity politics.
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You forgot revenge.
Don't discount the strong desire among the serially aggrieved to want to "stick it to" the people that beat them in the past in any and every way possible.
It's very "christian" isn't it?
Approved 2017 and building only started in 2024 (Score:2)
This is why America is failing.
There's a saying that unimportant decisions are made by the many, while important decisions are made by a few. The US seems to have opted to involve the many in both big and small decisions, and that leads to gridlock because it's much easier to oppose than support.
It's Project 2025 (Score:2)
Project 2025 opposes "eyesore windmills", so that's all you need to know.
This was not "more affordable" energy (Score:2)
Governor Hochul is lying when she says "Every single day, I'm working to make energy more affordable, reliable and abundant in New York". This wind farm had a deal that would allow them to charge twice the national average for energy.
Huh (Score:2)
Guess who didn't donate to Trump's inauguration fund nor even buy enough of Trump's crypto.
Tired of all the winning? (Score:1)
I'm surprised Secretary Burgum could find time away from [1]his decree for warm cookies [theatlantic.com] long enough to actually do anything...
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/burgum-cookies/682319/
Re:Tired of all the winning? (Score:5, Funny)
What do you expect from DEI hires?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If it wasn't trans people that right-wingers used to stoke up the hatred, it would've been gay people, or black people.
The only people who "played a big part" were those who voted for him, and those who didn't vote.
Re:Tired of all the winning? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, let's absolutely blame Democrats for the sociopath Republican in power doing sociopathic things, and all the other Republicans in the Congress that refuse to hold him to account for it.
This is quite possibly the dumbest of takes.
Re:Tired of all the winning? (Score:4, Insightful)
> I want to ask Democrats - was personal pronouns and men playing on your women's teams and schools being allowed to transition people's children in secret - the parents have no right to know the schools are doing this by law.
> Was it worth it?
> The dems played a big part in getting a now very pissed off criminal in office, who is fully immersed in revenge politics. He's going to undo a lot of good.
> How's that workin out for ya Democrats?
Let me get this straight. I didn't vote for orange jesus, but its my fault he was elected?
Re:Tired of all the winning? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, what's the alternative? Are the people who voted for him supposed to blame themselves?
Re: (Score:3)
> [...] schools being allowed to transition people's children in secret - the parents have no right to know the schools are doing this by law.
Enough with the inflammatory misrepresentations about the recent court case.
The schools are not "doing" anything to transition students. They're just respecting the student's own stated pronoun-preferences. The schools are not obliged to tell the parents. That's up to their child.
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Schools do need to inform parents about many things. But not whether their child wants to transition. Why? Because the courts say so.
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> Schools do need to inform parents about many things. But not whether their child wants to transition. Why? Because the courts say so.
No. So the parents can discuss it with their child and support their child's decision if it makes sense. I say "if it makes sense" because I heard some dumb ones from my kids friends when they were is school. "Because Bobby said he would go out with me if I was trans," is a dumb reason.
Re: (Score:2)
You're not comprehending what I'm writing. The courts say schools don't have to tell the parents. The End.
Re:Tired of all the winning? (Score:5, Insightful)
The far right always always have a target to hate on.
If it was trans folk, it'd be gay folk. Before that it was interracial marraige. And if it wasn't undocumented immigrants, it'd be documented immigrants. And before that it was black folk. And before that was indigenous folk. If it wasn't policies requiring govt employees to not be racist at work (DEI) it'd be "Critical race theory" (Obscure school of legal research that examines the impacts of racism on policing, mostly) and so on.
Its all bullshit. Kicking the democrats for not joining in the kicking is useless and doesn't achieve anything.
Could the democrats have done a better job? Abso-fucking-lutely, and the smarter ones will tell you that (Certainly Bernie has been open about his frusturations with the party for decades) , could they have focused more on the working class?
Sure, but lets be honest, freaking out about trans issues has been the obsessive focus of the republicans, not the democrats. Most people really dont give a shit either way, but would prefer we not be assholes to people who are different.
Maybe its time we took society a bit more seriously, and realise its not trans people, a very small minority probably under 1% of the population, causing the malaise in society. Its the horrific transfer of wealth from working people to a vanishingly small minority of oligarchs that seems to accelerate every crisis the economy has thats leaving the united states with such abhorent economic contradictions that SOMETHING had to give. And right now, the wrong things are giving.
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I think it was, because now with the newly found Trump doctrine, we can legally euthanize most of the Reich wing. I would full support either the destruction of America on the world stage if Trump stays in office as the new Furher, or if the Democrats take the Presidency, they can take all of DOGE, most of the Trump admin, and disappear them into El Salvador death camp. Then, using the legal strats Trump has put together, they can make the Federalist Society effectively illegal, declaring that anyone who em
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Why are you so obsessed with kids' genitals?
Dumbass climate criminal government (Score:2)
I just hope the young generation is taking notes for the climate crime indictments of the future.
Re:Dumbass climate criminal government (Score:4, Informative)
This is why I've always done exactly that, so when my grandkids want to know, in a couple of decades when they are old enough to ask the right questions and do something about it, who the fuck did this, and I want to give them an answer
Because take it from someone working in climate science, the people obstructing attempts to mitigate (we are well beyond prevention at this point, its happening, and its bad) climate harms know full well they are lying to the public, and those people have names and addresses.
And our kids deserve the chance to have their justice.