Posted on July 27, 2026
By Tréa Lavery
NEW BEDFORD — On a recent weekday afternoon, the State Pier and the adjacent City Pier 3 were bustling with fishing boats, passengers waiting to board the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard or eating lunch at the Whale’s Tail Clam Bar.
But just a mile down the road, at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, the only chatter came from the seagulls gathering on the empty concrete. The terminal was envisioned as the hub of Massachusetts’ offshore wind industry. But except for the signs at its entrance, a visitor could easily mistake it for an empty waterfront lot.
Construction on Vineyard Wind 1, the first utility-scale offshore wind project in Massachusetts, was completed in March. The 62 turbines off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard can generate up to 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 400,000 homes.
The Marine Commerce Terminal was expected to host the next offshore wind project, SouthCoast Wind, almost immediately after Vineyard Wind 1, but delays from the federal government under the Trump administration have brought the industry to a halt.
The slowdown comes as Massachusetts continues to face some of the highest energy costs in the nation. The state consumes roughly 22 times more electricity than it generates and relies heavily on imported power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The delays have also slowed the momentum that began building after Vineyard Wind 1 received its permit in spring 2020, spurring local investments in workforce training, manufacturing and other industries tied to offshore wind development. Supporters say those investments were made with the expectation that additional projects would follow, helping expand both the state’s energy supply and its clean-energy economy.
“Just Vineyard Wind alone, it’s not the answer to all our energy needs, but it’s a piece,” said Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Unions. “It’s not just the jobs in that industry. Attracting other industries to Massachusetts becomes that much more difficult because of our high cost. It’s another way to put more energy into the system, more affordable energy and energy independence.”
Offshore wind promised Mass. an economic boost
The state has invested significantly in offshore wind, from building out infrastructure to workforce training. Officials say that while the climate benefits of wind energy are clear, increasing Massachusetts’ ability to harness it would also have significant economic benefits, creating jobs and bringing down energy costs.
“We know that offshore wind is the future for Massachusetts and, quite frankly, for the East Coast,” Elizabeth Mahony, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources commissioner, said. “Offshore wind is clean, reliable and it’s affordable. It’s what’s being deployed all across the world.”
But President Donald Trump’s election to a second term in 2024 made that much more complicated. The president has long voiced his opposition to wind-generated energy, and during his first term, the federal government did not approve a single offshore wind project.
In 2019, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under Trump initiated an additional, extended environmental impact report on the Vineyard Wind 1 project, pushing back its start date significantly. The project received its final approvals a few months after Trump left office.
Now, in his second term, Trump has again halted the permitting process for all pending offshore wind applications. On the day of his inauguration in January 2025, he issued a memo stopping any new offshore wind leases or permits from being issued and initiating a review of existing leases.
In December, Trump suspended leases for several wind projects that had already been permitted, including Vineyard Wind 1, which was nearing completion at the time. The courts have since issued an injunction allowing work to proceed.
In September, the administration canceled $34 million in federal funds for construction of an offshore wind staging terminal in Salem. Gov. Maura Healey has since requested $70 million from the state Legislature to replace those funds and move development along.
The next major offshore wind project in Massachusetts, SouthCoast Wind, is almost fully permitted. It is missing only one permit from the federal government.
It is also awaiting a power purchase agreement from the state, which was set to be executed by June 30. However, on July 2, the state announced it would push back the agreement deadline to Jan. 29, 2027, citing the uncertainty caused by the federal government.
SouthCoast Wind is expected to include 141 turbines and create up to 2,400 megawatts, enough to power 840,000 homes. Its first phase will produce 1,200 megawatts of power. By comparison, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth generated 680 megawatts before it closed in 2019.
In the meantime, the Marine Commerce Terminal and the privately owned Foss Marine Terminal in New Bedford have both started accommodating non-wind tenants.
The Marine Commerce Terminal serves as a docking site for Seastreak ferries when they are not in service. Last week, it also hosted the Portuguese tall ship Sagres, which offered public tours during its visit to the city.
Initially, the city required the Foss Marine Terminal to be used only for tenants related to renewable energy. But in October, the terminal’s owners and the city signed an agreement allowing cargo services and other uses at the site due to the lack of offshore wind activity, the New Bedford Light reported.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said as a whole, New Bedford was still doing fine, describing offshore wind as a form of “diversification” for the biggest commercial fishing port in the country.
He expects that once the next wind projects get started, the terminals will revert to their intended use, which is generally more lucrative.
But Mitchell acknowledged the slowdown and said it was unlikely any of the planned wind projects would begin before 2029. In the meantime, the city is focused on expanding its infrastructure so it will be ready when that happens.
“If you were to drive along our waterfront, you’d still see cranes along the way. There’s still a considerable amount of construction going on,” he said. “We want to put ourselves in the best position to get as much work as possible.”
Workers left behind by delays
The slowdown has been particularly felt by workers who saw offshore wind as a source of long-term, well-paying jobs. Large-scale projects such as Vineyard Wind 1 rely on workers from numerous trades. More than 1,000 union members worked on the project during construction, according to Vineyard Offshore, the developer of Vineyard Wind 1 and 2 and other offshore wind projects on the East and West Coasts.
Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Unions, said there will always be construction work for skilled tradespeople. But many workers expected to move from Vineyard Wind 1 directly to the next offshore wind project.
“Some people are just not working right now that have those skills,” he said. “They trained up for those specific jobs. In particular, I’m thinking of the electricians. They were taking in bigger apprenticeship classes to meet the needs of those projects, and there’s not as much work right now.”
To work on offshore wind projects, workers have to get specialized certifications. The Global Wind Organisation certification covers working at heights, first aid, fire awareness, safely handling construction materials and sea survival — and must be renewed every two years. Workers who will be traveling to wind sites by helicopter also have to be trained on how to escape from a helicopter that has fallen underwater, which is practiced on a simulator.
Union members are having to weigh whether it is worth it to get certified or re-certify now, Callahan said, if they will have to wait at least until the end of Trump’s term before they can get a job in the industry.
Capt. Michael Burns, executive director at the Maritime Center for Responsible Energy at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, said in 2023 and 2024, the school was running fully enrolled GWO courses and training 250 to 275 people per year.
However, he estimated that enrollment fell by more than half over the course of 2025. As a result, the school has reduced the number of classes it offers because of low enrollment.
The people who do enroll are mostly workers going out to perform operations and maintenance work on existing wind farms, or working on ongoing construction in other states, he said.
“The companies that are sending people don’t want to send anyone for a certification that is perishable after two years,” Burns said.
Mass. faces lost jobs, lost investment and energy shortages
Other industries are feeling the effects as well. Local businesses and restaurants that would have served offshore wind workers are losing potential customers, while manufacturers that would have supplied turbine projects are missing out on anticipated work.
At least one company that was planning to build a manufacturing site in Somerset, where it would have made deep-sea cables to carry electricity generated by offshore turbines to Massachusetts, withdrew its proposal almost immediately after the 2024 presidential election.
“Once the supply chain associated with that industry started to build out … you get those land-based projects on the New Bedford waterfront or Salem. All the trades would be working to construct those buildings,” Jim Pimental, Southeast Massachusetts Building Trades Council president, said. “The fact the Trump administration has pushed pause on the whole industry means we’re not going to have those opportunities.”
But regardless of occupation, Massachusetts residents are suffering because of the project delays, said U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-9th Massachusetts, whose district includes New Bedford, Cape Cod and the Islands.
Massachusetts needs much more power than it can create, which requires importing power from other states. Keating said he has heard from energy suppliers that as demand continues to increase over the coming years, it’s possible they will have to institute rolling blackouts in the future.
Residents are already dealing with sky-high utility bills, and building out offshore wind as a renewable energy source would help by meeting some of the demand, he said.
“New England and Massachusetts in particular, we have a real problem,” Keating said. “Our supply doesn’t come close to meeting our demand. And when that happens, basic economics: that’s going to drive up every consumer’s electric bill.”
“Winter demand is increasing more than ever because of the variations of the temperatures in the winter, and that’s going to make it much more difficult,” he added. “What does that mean? It means … they’re going to rely on dirtier, carbon-based energy sources.”
Future of offshore wind in Mass.
It’s not clear when work on offshore wind projects will pick up again, though most state government and industry officials agree it won’t happen at least until Trump leaves office.
“The private side that invested will have more doubts now,” Keating said. “Even if an administration comes in as pro-offshore wind, they’re going to say, ‘Well, what about the next administration?’ It’s going to put that doubt there.”
Even when development does resume, it won’t be easy to jump right back in. Construction costs are rising every day, and re-training workers whose certifications have lapsed will be expensive, said Callahan.
Like New Bedford, the state is focusing on making sure its infrastructure is ready to support future offshore wind projects. That means moving forward on the Salem terminal once funding is secured and expanding the existing infrastructure in New Bedford.
In February, the state announced a memorandum of understanding with Nova Scotia, Canada, to share expertise and speed up offshore wind projects in both locations.
“We invested in New Bedford, and we had that port ready to go, ready for the industry to build out of it. That’s why we could build Vineyard Wind,” said Mahony, of the Department of Energy Resources. “We’re going to keep pressing forward and keep everything simmering so that we can be ready when our projects are ready to go.”
