Trump’s order won’t halt California’s offshore wind leases. But will it derail the industry?

In summary

The president’s order has no immediate effect on offshore wind leases already authorized, including two large areas off California’s coast. But it sends a current of uncertainty through the fledgling renewable energy industry, which relies on federal and state support.

President Donald Trump’s ban on new offshore wind leases won’t halt giant wind farms already planned off California’s coast, but industry officials say the policy shift is a blow to a renewable energy industry still working to gain a foothold.

Environmentalists say the moratorium amounts to “kneecapping” California’s offshore wind projects and puts an important source of clean energy in “mortal peril.” The Biden administration had promoted offshore wind as critical to providing cleaner power and reducing climate-warming greenhouse  gases.

“I hereby withdraw from disposition for wind energy leasing all areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf,” which encompasses all federal waters off the United States, Trump wrote in an order on Monday. He said it was effective immediately and temporarily prevents “any new or renewed wind energy leasing for the purposes of generation of electricity or any other such use derived from the use of wind.”

The order has no immediate effect on leases already authorized, including two large areas off California’s coast. Trump wrote that “nothing in this” order “affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas.”