By Kennedy Maize
Donald Trump’s seemingly visceral hatred of offshore wind is well known. He’s also opposed to terrestrial wind projects. Less noticed: It turns out Trump’s wind ire has strange partisan implications.
Trump’s hatred of offshore wind dates to 2011 when he objected to a planned offshore project as he was developing a major golf resort in coastal Aberdeenshire in eastern Scotland. He called wind turbines “ugly,” challenged the project in court, lost, and has apparently loathed them since.
Campaigning for president in May of 2024, Trump in Atlantic City, N.J. vowed to kill U.S. offshore wind. He ranted, “They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is. They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.”
On the first day of his second term in the White House, Jan. 20, Trump ordered his key agencies with authority over federal wind projects – Treasury, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Energy, and Environmental Protection – to implement a “temporary withdrawal of all areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing and review of the federal government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects.”
So far, Trump has gone after major wind projects in federal waters: Revolution Wind off Rhode Island; Vineyard Wind 1 and South Coast Wind, both off Massachusetts; Sunrise Wind off New York; and Empire Wind also off New York, with a mixed record.
After Interior ordered Revolution Wind to stop construction in August on “national security” grounds, a federal court judge in Washington a month later reversed the order. In April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered a stop to construction on the Empire Wind project. A month later, Trump backed off and construction resumed. Rumors circulated that N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul threated to kill a 125-mile natural gas pipeline running through the state unless the White House retreated on wind. That has not been confirmed.
One thing Trump’s five offshore wind targets have in common is that all are in located off the shores of states with governors who are Democrats. Would it be shocking to suspect that Trump is playing partisan politics with wind power?
The online news site Clean Technica recently headlined a story “The Little Red Secret Behind The War On Offshore Wind.” The article pointed to Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (aka CVOW) off Virginia Beach, which the utility touts as “the largest offshore wind project in the U.S.”
Not a word from the Trump administration has been heard about this project, a favorite of Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Trump ally (whom some political observers in the Old Dominion hint may be eyeing a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2028). Clean Technica wrote that Rep. Jen Kiggins (R-Va.), a nurse and former Navy helicopter pilot in her two terms representing Virginia Beach, is also a strong CVOW supporter.
Clean Technica observed that Youngkin “is a big fan of CVOW and the project appears safe — for now, that is.”
As the turbine blade turns: Virginia governors are limited to one four-year term, with the elections timed for odd-numbered years. That’s a residue of the early Democratic segregationist Harry F. Byrd machine that dominated Virginia politics from the late 19th century into the 1960s. Byrd designed the machine to keep statewide politics insulated from national politics and maintain white domination in the former slave state where Richmond was the capital of the confederacy from 1861-1865.
Youngkin is a lame duck and will be unemployed soon after the election polls close on Nov. 4. Early voting began Sept. 19 and closes Nov. 1. The leading candidate to succeed him is Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a four-term member of Congress and a former CIA analyst. Polls have shown her with a small but consistent lead over Republican nominee Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a former Marine corporal.
Clean Technica writes, “Without Youngkin’s support, CVOW will lose its special status,” noting that last month, “Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reportedly confirmed that his agency is reviewing five offshore wind projects already under construction, including the CVOW project.”
Trump’s wind antipathy extends to onshore “windmills” as well as the aquatic versions. In his infamous August “cabinet meeting” and worship service, Trump said, “We don’t allow windmills, We’re not allowing any windmills to go up. Unless there’s a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago, we don’t allow windmills.”
In an Oct. 10 article headlined “Trump’s Wind Energy Assault Stings Red States,” the Wall Street Journal noted, “Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Kansas—all states that backed Trump—are the nation’s top wind energy producers. But that hasn’t kept the president’s administration from taking actions that threaten jobs and tens of billions of dollars in new investment.”
Burgum now personally reviews all wind projects on federal land and waters, according to the article. That’s unlikely to be a speedy process. Texas, for example, has 3.2 million acres of federal land. The WSJ adds, “Although most land-based projects are on private property, the government has to be consulted about the impact on endangered species and wetlands, raising permitting uncertainty.”
Those windy red states are also exposing Trump’s lie that wind power is more expensive than his favored fossil fuels. The WSJ article noted, “Wind turbines, which help reduce local property taxes and make tens of millions in annual lease payments to farmers, help Iowa enjoy some of the lowest electricity prices in the nation.”
Trump’s wind tirades are also upsetting some traditional supporters in the oil patch. Louisiana Republican state legislator Joe Orgeron recently traveled to D.C. to lobby for offshore wind as a buffer against the Pelican State’s dependence on the boom and bust cycles of the oil industry.
Orgeron’s legislative district includes Port Fourchon, the state’s southernmost port on the Gulf of Mexico and the central hub for the offshore oil and gas industry. It also houses shipbuilders and offshore service companies serving East Coast wind projects.