Posted on January 19, 2026
By Mark Chediak
Jan 18, 2026 (Bloomberg) –President Donald Trump’s campaign against offshore wind power in the US sustained major setbacks last week when three different judges blocked enforcement of a government ban and allowed projects in New York, Rhode Island and Virginia to resume construction. And two others may win similar decisions soon.
But Trump may already have won his battle to gut the industry, even if the turbines now under construction begin supplying electricity as planned in the next year or so. That’s because the dramatic shift in US government policy since Joe Biden was president has escalated the risk of investing in multibillion-dollar projects that already were facing significant financial and technical hurdles.
“The courts can stop the abrupt enforcement of policies, but they can’t really restart a stable pipeline for these projects,” said Atin Jain, an analyst at BloombergNEF. “Under this kind of policy environment, nobody is going to touch US offshore wind for some time.”
And there’s still a possibility Trump prevails in court. So far, rulings allowing construction to resume are temporary, and decisions have yet to be made on the merits of company lawsuits claiming the government’s Dec. 22 stop-work order was illegal. The administration has pledged to keep fighting, saying the projects pose undisclosed national security risks.
“President Trump will continue to aggressively implement his energy dominance agenda to lower energy bills, improve our grid stability and protect our national security,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers.
