US Blocks All Offshore Wind Construction, Says Reason Is Classified (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0180440863
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/22/2133214/us-blocks-all-offshore-wind-construction-says-reason-is-classified
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/us-government-finds-new-excuse-to-stop-construction-of-offshore-wind/
> On Monday, the US Department of the Interior [1]announced that it was [2]pausing the leases on all five offshore wind sites currently under construction in the US . The move comes despite the fact that these projects already have installed significant hardware in the water and on land; one of them is nearly complete. In what appears to be an attempt to avoid legal scrutiny, the Interior is blaming the decisions on a classified report from the Department of Defense.
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> The second Trump administration announced its animosity toward offshore wind power [3]literally on day one , issuing an executive order on inauguration day that called for a temporary halt to issuing permits for new projects pending a re-evaluation. Earlier this month, however, a judge vacated that executive order, noting that the government has shown no indication that it was even attempting to start the re-evaluation it said was needed. But a number of projects have gone through the entire permitting process, and construction has started. Before today, the administration had attempted to stop these in an erratic, halting manner. Empire Wind, an 800 MW farm being built off New York, was stopped by the Department of the Interior, which alleged that it had been rushed through permitting. That hold was lifted following lobbying and negotiations by New York and the project developer Orsted, and the Department of the Interior never revealed why it changed its mind. When the Interior Department blocked a second Orsted project, Revolution Wind offshore of southern New England, the company took the government to court and won a ruling that let it continue construction.
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> Today's announcement targets those and three other projects. Interior says it is pausing the permits for all five, which are the only projects currently under construction. It claims that offshore wind creates "national security risks" that were revealed in a recent analysis performed by the Department of Defense, which apparently neglected to identify these issues during the evaluations it did while the projects were first permitted. What are these risks? The Interior Department is being extremely coy. It notes that offshore wind turbines can interfere with radar sensing, but that's been known for a while. In announcing the decision, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also noted "the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies." But the announcement says that the Defense Department analysis is classified, meaning nobody is likely to know what the actual reason is -- presuming one exists. The classification will also make it far more challenging to contest this decision in court.
[1] https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/trump-administration-protects-us-national-security-pausing-offshore-wind-leases
[2] https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/us-government-finds-new-excuse-to-stop-construction-of-offshore-wind/
[3] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/temporary-withdrawal-of-all-areas-on-the-outer-continental-shelf-from-offshore-wind-leasing-and-review-of-the-federal-governments-leasing-and-permitting-practices-for-wind-projects/
Highlander Maneuver (Score:5, Funny)
I believe this is called the 'Highlander' maneuver. "There can be only one" windbag and that would be our wonderous dear leader.
Re: (Score:1)
> There is no possible way it recoups investment.
Are you certain of this?
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
You’ve just described industrial machinery. Congratulations, you’ve discovered physics.
Yes, wind turbines are big. Power generation, it turns out, involves mass, materials, foundations, maintenance, oil, brakes, roads, trucks, and time. This is not a scandal, it’s how literally every energy system ever built works. The difference is that after construction, a wind turbine’s fuel bill is zero, which is a concept fossil fuels never quite managed to grasp.
The “never recoups investment” claim collapses instantly under arithmetic. Modern onshore turbines repay their energy and carbon footprint in roughly 6–12 months, then run for 20–30 years. Offshore takes longer, still well under 2–3 years. If they didn’t pay for themselves, no private developer, insurer, or pension fund would touch them. Capital markets are many things, but they are not charities for spinning lawn ornaments.
The oil argument is adorable. A few hundred litres over years of operation, versus millions of litres burned continuously in fossil plants. If lubrication disqualifies something from being green, bicycles are cancelled and trains are a moral failure.
Blades not being perfectly recyclable is true, and also true of aircraft wings, boats, cars, phones, laptops, and basically everything you’re typing on. Meanwhile coal plants generate ash mountains forever, gas plants leak methane, and oil spills make ecosystems disappear. But sure, let’s panic about fiberglass.
“They replace them every 7–10 years” is simply wrong. Gearboxes and blades last decades, and repowering usually means swapping parts to increase output, not because the turbine “wore out”. Fossil plants undergo constant maintenance too, they just don’t get blamed for existing.
Farm access roads, fences, construction phases, brakes, lawsuits, delays, welcome to infrastructure. The same complaints apply to pipelines, refineries, power stations, railways, highways, and yes, drilling rigs. Wind is just the first energy source people expect to materialise magically without touching the ground.
The funniest part is calling wind “the biggest lie” while defending fuels that require mining, drilling, shipping, burning, cooling, waste handling, pollution control, subsidies, and geopolitical wars just to keep the lights on. Wind skips the fuel, skips the smoke, skips the import dependency, and that’s what actually bothers people.
Wind isn’t perfect. Nothing is. But the idea that spinning steel poles producing power for decades are some kind of scam only works if you ignore math, markets, and the fact that they keep getting built because they make money. Physics doesn’t care about vibes.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, much better to invest in electrical production which... *checks notes*... does not utilize concrete foundations, metal or glass, and doesn't take years to plan and build. I don't know what that is but I'm sure the engineers who are not experts on the subject like I am will figure something out.
And we certainly must think of those poor farmers out there in the ocean having to move their sea fences.
But hey, I also hate the Pedofuhrer so that means everyone agrees with me, right?
Re: Good (Score:2)
You're worried about 300 gallons of oil? In a massive wind turbine?
Get a little perspective. If that was diesel run through a generator it would generate just over 4MWh of power (about 14kWh/gallon). Pay back on that oil is literally 30-120 minutes at nameplate capacity for modern turbine. Even on a relatively bad day you've recovered it in less than a day.
Even small farms likely have a tank of fuel larger than that for topping off the tractor and other equipment.
The reason is classified? (Score:2)
So it's not Trump's feud with windmills over blocking the view at his golf courses?
How many jobs were lost? (Score:3)
Aside from the bullshit "security" issue, how many jobs are now gone because of this? I thought this regime was all about creating jobs and "making American great again".
If you're killing jobs left and right, that doesn't sound like making anything great other than unemployment.
Re: (Score:2)
Well surely the people impacted won't figure out who has a raging hate-on for wind power because it's classified. Right?
Re: (Score:1)
The oil services industry aint happy either; as they were behind a lot of the platform development etc for offshore work.
That leaves us with two explainations
The Administration irrationally hates wind, no matter who is making money off it. (I doubt this, Plenty of ways to shovel money to Trump cronies)
or
There really is some national security reason. One credible thing I have seen is the turbines interfere with radars and sonars used to watch for low flying enemy aircraft and subs.
Re: (Score:2)
The Trump order applies ONLY to wind power. Oil platforms are not banned for any reason. If that seems illogical well... Trump.
Re:How many jobs were lost? (Score:4, Insightful)
Third explanation: Putin's pawn is continuing to damage the United States at Putin's behest.
Putin has the Epstein files (Score:2)
and they implicate Trump. I think that much is obvious at this point.
Re:How many jobs were lost? (Score:4, Insightful)
> The Administration irrationally hates wind, no matter who is making money off it.
Don't doubt it and to them it's quite rational. To acknowledge wind power is to acknowledge climate change and that's lib shit and Trump must be opposed to liberals at every turn. The fact Democrats support it is enough for Trump to remove it, especially if Biden or Obama had supported it.
Seriously, it's that simple. That lens has a lot of predictive power.
Re: (Score:2)
> The fact Democrats support it is enough for Trump to remove it, especially if Biden or Obama had supported it.
I'm reminded of ancient Egypt, where each new Pharoah's first order of business was to destroy the monuments created by (and for) his predecessor, and then to start building new ones by (and for) himself. Have we reached that level of narcissism?
Re: (Score:3)
Bender: Citizens of me! The cruelty of the old Pharaoh is a thing of the past!
[crowd cheers]
Bender: Let a whole new wave of cruelty wash over this lazy land!
[crowd cheers, then is confused]
Re: (Score:3)
> The Administration irrationally hates wind, no matter who is making money off it. (I doubt this, ...
Uh... seriously, have you listened to Trump at all during the past decade? It's pretty obvious that Trump irrationally hates wind energy, no matter who is making money off it. He has spouted, over and over, all sorts of nonsensical batshit-crazy ideas about why wind energy is bad.
Of course to be fair, Trump spouts all sorts of nonsensical batshit-crazy ideas on all sorts of topics...
Re: (Score:2)
Oh snap I did forget that Trump has a grudge after he lost a lawsuit to Scotland about an offshore wind farm within viewing distance of his golf course so it's personal to Trump which is the most rational thing to him.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_International_Golf_Club_Scotland_Ltd_v_The_Scottish_Ministers