Feds pull $679M in funding for ports to support wind projects, creating more uncertainty

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday "terminated and withdrew" $679 million previously committed for offshore wind-energy infrastructure projects, days after the Trump administration took aim at the projects' "massive" tax subsidies and national security concerns.

The series of moves by the Trump administration is raising concerns about two offshore wind projects for Long Island that are already under construction, particularly after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy referred to offshore wind projects as "doomed."

His termination of the funding for ports to support wind-energy construction does not immediately impact plans for Long Island projects Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind being built off the coast, according to a preliminary review by one of the developers.

"Sadly, his order is in line with an assault on a technology that President Donald Trump is not a fan of," said Kit Kennedy, managing director for power, climate and energy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental activist group. 

A spokesman for Equinor, which is developing the Empire Wind project, declined to comment. 

Duffy on Friday said his agency was withdrawing funds the Biden administration earmarked for "doomed offshore wind projects" to instead "ensure federal dollars are prioritized toward restoring America’s maritime dominance and preventing waste." 

Among the projects that are being withdrawn is a proposed staging area for offshore wind projects planned for the Arthur Kill Terminal on Staten Island, to which the federal government had pledged $48 million, according to the agency.

Empire Wind is being staged at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which was not mentioned in the order. In all funding for 12 projects has been withdrawn for coastal projects, the agency said.

Duffy in his statement charged that Biden and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg "bent over backward to use transportation dollars for their 'Green New Scam' agenda while ignoring the dire needs of our shipbuilding industry. Thanks to President Donald Trump, we are prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects that cost much and offer little."

The move follows comments Tuesday by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who explained his decision last Friday to halt a New England offshore wind farm that is 80% complete. Burgum pointed to concerns about tax subsidies, blade failure and even a potential drone-swarm attack through the arrays.

Burgum in a letter to Revolution Wind developer Orsted last week ordered a halt to work on the 704-megawatt project off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, citing "concerns related to the protection of national security interests."

The Interior Department declined to respond to questions about why Revolution Wind, with power destined for Connecticut and Rhode Island only months away, was singled out, raising the specter that other projects could be targeted. Earlier this year Burgum suspended construction of Empire Wind, but allowed construction to restart in May.

Revolution Wind owner Orsted also is the owner of South Fork Wind, which is already operating in the same waters to send power to the Hamptons; and Sunrise Wind, which is now under construction to provide some 924 megawatts of power for Long Island by 2027.

"There’s a whole range of things that need to be reviewed," Burgum said in an interview with CNN Tuesday. He spoke of "national defense issues relative to radar" and pointed to a report referenced by Duffy during a Trump administration Cabinet meeting that he said had been "buried." The report, Burgum said, indicated that a wind farm located "too close to a railroad or a highway could affect the electronics."

In particular, Burgum told CNN host Kaitlan Collins, "there’s concerns about radar relative to undersea — it doesn’t have to be a large Russian sub, but undersea drones, the new technology."

Burgum said the war in Ukraine has shown that "swarm attacks by drones, if you are going to launch one in the most populous parts of our country," could be facilitated by radar-disturbing wind farms.

"People with bad ulterior moves to the United States would launch a swarm attack through the wind farm [and] the radar gets very distorted around detecting" the attack, he said, adding, "if you’re trying to detect and avoid if you’ve got drones coming."

Kennedy of NRDC noted that all offshore wind projects underwent a rigorous review before receiving permits, including a "detailed review by the Department of Defense" from "all military angles. Revolution went through this process and got the green light from DoD. Nothing has changed since then," she said. 

Orsted in a statement noted its Revolution Wind project has received "all required federal and state permits including its construction and operations plan approval," in November 2023, "3, following reviews that began more than nine years ago. Those reviews included the U.S. Department of Defense." 

Burgum also raised the question of the wind farm’s "sustainability during high-speed storms," and pointed to "10 minutes of comments" made by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during the Cabinet meeting.

Kennedy's concerns centered on a blade break at the Vineyard Wind project off Nantucket last year, saying the blade "blew up."

NRDC's Kennedy acknowledged that the blade break was a "significant mishap," but noted the company "responded promptly to the accident at the direction of federal agencies, fixed the problem and worked with the community to address their concerns."

Burgum also made reference to what he called the "preferential treatment that went into these wind farms."

He said that if "you’re going to build an oil and gas platform off the coast of Louisiana, you have to put together a full bond that says if this thing has to be taken down or if there’s ever an issue, I’ve got all that" covered financially.

"The wind farm guys that put these projects together, which are massive, massive tax schemes, I mean, 60%-70% of the project is around that tax benefit and not around the electric generation."

NRDC's Kennedy said the claim of "massive subsidies" for offshore wind for years is "not true," citing credits of 30%-50%. And she noted that the fossil fuel industry "has had large-scale federal subsidies for many, many decades and continues to have them."

She also noted that the federal agency that oversees wind-energy leases requires offshore wind farms to be "covered by decommissioning funds and bonding. Developers are responsible for the decommissioning of their projects."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.