Posted on September 15, 2025
Anyone who voted Trump into office for a second try at blowing up the US government knew exactly what they were voting for, and that’s exactly what they are getting. The US offshore wind industry is exhibit A. Trump has dumped practically the entire domestic offshore industry into the toilet along with thousands of jobs, but lol the joke’s on us. Other nations are benefiting from wind technologies that were developed over years of painstaking effort — with taxpayer support — right here at home.
US Offshore Wind Resources Are Ripe For The Picking …
Offshore wind is a relatively new development in the global energy profile. The industry initially focused on shallow coastal waters, where turbine towers can sit on top of monopiles sunk deep into the seabed. With its energy-sucking coastal communities and sprawling Continental Shelf along the Atlantic coast, the US was — and still is — an ideal location for monopile construction.
Many more opportunities also beckon in the deeper waters of the US, in Maine and along the Pacific coast, where turbines can be perched on floating platforms anchored to the seabed by cables. Floating wind platforms offer a wider selection of sites for offshore turbines, helping to avoid conflicts with fishing, shipping, and naval operations. Floating wind farms can also avoid interfering with aquatic migration routes, and they can be located in areas unseen from shore, saving the precious viewscape of coastal communities from spoilage.
… Not!
Oh, well, woe is us. No more offshore wind for the USA. During his first term in office Trump transferred his personal vendetta against wind turbines into a roaring demon targeting the offshore wind industry for destruction, though without success. This time around, Trump has achieved spectacular success, particularly in regards to the offshore wind industry — if spectacular success can be measured in jobs lost and businesses sunk all up and down a 40-state supply chain (see lots more Trump v. US wind workers background here).
Unlike his first term, Trump now has a powerful weapon on his side in the US Department of the Interior. The Environmental Protection Agency has also taken out its knives, and now the Department of Justice wants in on the bloodletting.
For reasons best known only to itself, on September 12, the DOJ decided to reverse its approval for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project. The new wind farm was previously greenlit by state and federal officials. The offshore wind trade organization Oceantic Network was among those quick to bite back at the DOJ in biting words.
“The unlawful actions by the Trump administration against fully permitted offshore wind projects up and down the East Coast represent one of the largest, economically devastating assaults on U.S. workers, businesses, and energy in decades,” observed Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock in a press statement.
“Revoking a permit on an approved project after years of thorough agency review will raise electricity prices for families, jeopardize private investment, delay economic growth, and weaken our power grid,” Burdock added for good measure.
Trump Vs. Floating Offshore Wind: Who’s Wasting, Abusing, And Defrauding Who?
Good luck with that. Bite away, but words do not factor into Trump’s calculations. After all, this is the same person who once said “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Joking or not, that comment pretty much sums up Trump’s second term in office, such as it is. Whether or not Maryland successfully challenges the new DOJ filing, Trump has already pulled the paycheck rug out from under thousands of working households that were already counting on income from other offshore projects in the pipeline, with some already deep into the construction phase.
That’s just the monopile end of the offshore industry. Trump has also killed the floating part in its cradle, putting an end to a longstanding, taxpayer-supported effort to cultivate new floating offshore wind platform technologies.
Exhibit A is the US startup Principle Power. The firm received Energy Department support for its new three-legged floating turbine platform back in 2009. With the generous assist from US taxpayers, Principle was testing its floating platform in open water by 2014. The step-up in activity enabled Principle to attract private sector investors in the following years, including Shell, among others.
In 2019, the Energy Department tasked Principle with leading a whole consortium of innovators to spur additional investments and kickstart a new floating wind industry here in the US. Doing the math, that was during Trump’s first term in office. Apparently snuffing out a brand new domestic industry was not tops on the Trump agenda back then, but it is now.
There Goes Principle Power, Floating Away
The Interior Department will issue no more offshore leases for wind farms, floating or not. Principle Power, on the other hand, is free to pursue opportunities elsewhere around the globe.
On September 4, the company announced the successful installation of all three of its Windfloat turbine platforms at the new “Les Éoliennes Flottantes du Golfe de Lion” floating offshore wind farm, about 16 kilometers off the coast of Leucate and Le Barcarès in Port-la Nouvelle, France.
At just three 10-megawatt turbines, EFGL is a small project, but Principle anticipates that it will demonstrate the viability of more floating offshore wind farms in Europe. “The project marks the second small commercial floating wind project in the French Mediterranean and a significant step toward commercial-scale deployment in Europe,” the company explained in a press statement. It’s also notable that the three Vestas V164-10 turbines are the largest to be installed on a floating platform to date.
The financing structure for the project is also expected to set the stage for addition offshore floating wind farms. “The financing structure is one of the first for floating wind and demonstrates the bankability of the technology, paving the way for larger projects, where project Capital Expenditures are expected to grow into the multi-billion range,” Principle observed.
The wheels are already in motion. Offshore Wind, the joint venture behind the EFGL project, already has two 250-megawatt projects in the Mediterranean pipeline. Principle also expects the forthcoming French offshore wind auctions to bring the total for the region up to 3.5 gigawatts by the end of next year.
The Offshore Wind Industry Carries On While Trump Fiddles With Ballroom For The 1%
Before it was cut off at the neck, the US offshore wind industry employed thousands of households throughout the manufacturing supply chain and seaports on land in the US, in addition to workers engaged at the offshore sites themselves. Dozens of commercial fishing boat owners were also enlisted to ferry crews around worksites, enabling them to earn a steady income during slack times.
Now practically all of that is kaput. If anyone out there is looking for a job, get yourself down to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where Trump is busy with his top priority, a brand new “large event space” adjacent to the White House at an estimated cost of $200 million.
Not to worry, taxpayers won’t be footing the bill. “President Trump, and other patriot donors,” have said they will donate the funds, if all goes according to plan that is.
