Trump administration suspends Sunrise Wind project, among several off East Coast

The Trump administration on Monday cited "emerging" national security risks to once again hit the brakes on U.S. offshore wind-energy projects under construction, including two near Long Island, sparking new outrage from green-energy backers.

It’s the third time this year the U.S. Department of the Interior, which administers offshore wind projects through its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, has ordered a halt to projects.

The pause does not include the already-operating South Fork Wind project contracted to LIPA, but does impact two that will deliver their power to the downstate region, including Long Island: Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind. Other projects halted Monday are Vineyard Wind 1 and Revolution Wind, off New England, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. The labor advocacy group Climate Jobs New York estimated the move could idle "thousands of skilled union workers."

"The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a release Monday. "Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our East Coast population centers."

The pause could have a particularly detrimental effect on Sunrise Wind, which is scheduled to bring all its 924 megawatts of power to Long Island by the second half of 2027. Developer Ørsted had recently begun laying a 106-mile cable from Smith Point to the wind-energy lease area off the coast of Massachusetts/Rhode Island, and was more than 40% complete.

"Vessels are currently stationed offshore near Smith Point Park to install Sunrise Wind’s export cable," Ørsted reported earlier this month, noting that 44 of a planned 84 turbine foundations and its offshore substation were installed this year. Revolution Wind, which was previously shut down by the Trump administration before a court order overturned it, is more than 85% complete, Ørsted said.

Delays can cost millions of dollars per day, as expensive vessels and workers sit idle, Newsday has reported. Ørsted has faced financial headwinds over the past two years tied to wind-industry supply constraints, rising interest rates and changing political winds for wind power in the United States, leading to project cancellations and a plummeting stock price.

On Monday, the company was complying with the federal order to suspend “all ongoing activities on the outer continental shelf for the next 90 days” for its Sunrise and Revolution wind projects, according to an email from Ørsted spokeswoman Meaghan Wims.

The federal agency said it reserved the right to extend the suspension.

“Ørsted is evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,” Wims wrote, including evaluating “potential legal proceedings.”

Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind are “both in advanced stages of construction,” Wims wrote, noting that both projects “consulted closely and directly with the U.S. Department of Defense Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to evaluate and address potential impacts to national security and defense capabilities from construction and operation” before beginning work.

The decision puts another pause on Empire Wind off the coast of Jones Beach, which was previously paused by the Trump administration in the spring. That project, with power earmarked for New York City, was in the process of making arrangements for a construction vessel to install nearly 1,000-foot turbine towers next year and commercial operation in 2027.

A spokesman for Equinor, the energy conglomerate that owns Empire Wind and in the spring negotiated an end to a prior stop-work order, said the company and its contractors were complying with the latest order, "safely suspending all ongoing activities related to the Empire Wind Project on the Outer Continental Shelf, with the ability to perform any activities that are necessary to respond to emergency situations and/or to prevent impacts to health, safety, and the environment."

Equinor said Empire is more than 60% complete, with the latest work involving trenching, cable laying and cable pulling offshore until the pause. "In total, dozens of vessels, around 1,000 people, and more than a hundred companies in the U.S. and globally have been working in coordination on the Empire Wind project," Equinor said. "The stop-work order threatens the progress of these activities and without a swift solution" may result in a "significant impact to the project."

The pause by the U.S. Department of the Interior cited unclassified reports that found that large turbine blades and reflective towers from wind farms can create so-called "clutter" that can create false alarms near them.

It further cited a 2024 U.S. Department of Energy report stating that a radar’s threshold for false alarm detection "can be increased to reduce some clutter, but an increased detection threshold could cause the radar to ‘miss actual targets.’ ”

The pause, with no listed end date, "ensures that national security risks posed by offshore wind projects are appropriately addressed and that the United States government retains its ability to effectively defend the American people," according to a Department of the Interior release Monday.

Critics of the Trump administration's repeated attacks on wind note that the projects he has paused are all fully permitted and have undergone rigorous testing by various federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, which reviewed Empire Wind's tower plans along the Kennedy Airport flight corridor.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a social media post Monday, took aim at the Trump administration, which she charged will "look for any excuse to continue its assault on clean energy — and the thousands of good-paying jobs these projects bring — but there is no credible justification for this stoppage.

"The real threat to national security is in undermining our energy independence," Hochul wrote on X. New York State has been forced to redraw its long-term energy plan based in large part on Trump’s attacks on green energy, sunsetting subsidies on solar and wind energy and electric vehicles.

Monday’s move sparked new outrage from wind-industry proponents who have endured a series of head-spinning assaults from Trump on wind energy, including claims that it "drives whales crazy," causes environmental and scenic damage and is more costly than conventional power. John Rogers, associate director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement called the latest pause "outrageous and incredibly shortsighted."

"It puts in jeopardy thousands of good-paying American jobs, billions of dollars in investments, and enough electricity for millions of households — particularly during severe winter storms when people need that power the most," said Rogers, who oversees energy analytics at the agency. "President Trump's irrational obsession with fighting one of the cleanest, cheapest sources of power our country has to offer cannot stand.

It's not the first time the Trump administration has evoked national security risks in pausing offshore wind. In August, Burgum, in a CNN interview, charged there were "a whole range of things that need to be reviewed" about offshore wind from a national security perspective. He spoke of "national defense issues relative to radar" and pointed to a report referenced by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that indicated that a wind farm located "too close to a railroad or a highway could affect the electronics."

In particular, Burgum said, "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 in a separate letter to Revolution Wind developer Ørsted in August 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 order was later overturned by a federal court.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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