Posted on August 11, 2025
Another day, another “beatings will continue until morale improves” moment for the U.S. offshore wind industry. According to a press release issued Thursday, the Department of the Interior is launching a full review of offshore wind energy regulations to “ensure alignment with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and America’s energy priorities under President Donald J. Trump.”
The effort will include reviewing the Renewable Energy Modernization Rule, as well as financial assurance requirements and decommissioning cost estimates for offshore wind projects, to “ensure federal regulations do not provide preferential treatment to unreliable, foreign-controlled energy sources over dependable, American-made energy.”
The review, led by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), will consider updates to rules under 30 CFR parts 585, 586, and 285. Interior believes this action supports Secretary’s Order 3437, “Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources in Department Decision-Making,” Secretary’s Order 3438, “Managing Federal Energy Resources and Protecting the Environment,” and President Trump’s memorandum on wind energy signed on January 20, 2025.
“The Department is fully committed to making sure that offshore energy development reflects President Trump’s America First Energy Dominance agenda and the real-world demands of today’s global energy landscape,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “We’re taking a results-driven approach that prioritizes reliability, strengthens national security, and upholds both scientific integrity and responsible environmental stewardship.”
Interior says the effort also supports Executive Order 14315, which directs agencies to identify and “eliminate favoritism toward unreliable energy sources.” The Department has paused new approvals for offshore wind projects, including leases, permits, rights-of-way, and loans, in compliance with the Presidential Memorandum on wind energy, while it “conducts a review of offshore wind energy projects and their impact on the environment, national security, and the economy.”
In support of these presidential directives, BOEM rescinded all Designated Wind Energy Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf on July 30, 2025. Additionally, on August 5, 2025, BOEM eliminated the requirement to publish a five-year schedule of offshore wind energy lease sales and to update the lease sale schedule every two years.
Interior maintains it will continue to oversee the Outer Continental Shelf “with a clear focus on protecting American interests—advancing responsible energy production, safeguarding our environment and supporting long-term economic strength.”
The War on Wind Power
President Trump’s disdain for wind power has reached new heights in recent weeks.
Days removed from ensuring the demise of the U.S. offshore wind industry and effectively reneging on its associated promises of clean power and leaving a mess for states to deal with, the Trump administration is doing a solid for some legislators in Idaho who have been complaining about a particular wind project for years, canceling Magic Valley Energy’s 1,000 megawatt Lava Ridge Wind in Jerome, ID.
“Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is restoring common sense to American energy policy by reversing the Biden administration’s misguided, last-minute push to approve the Lava Ridge Wind Project, an enormous and unpopular 1,000-megawatt wind facility in southern Idaho, during the final days of the former president’s term,” reads the beginning of a decree issued Wednesday. “The Department of the Interior will no longer provide preferential treatment towards unreliable, intermittent power sources that harm rural communities, livelihoods, and the land, such as the Lava Ridge Wind Project and the radical Green New Scam agenda that burdens our nation and public lands.”
Last Friday, Secretary Burgum signed a Secretary’s Order that all but ensures developers of neither wind nor solar generation technology will break ground on federal lands by changing the way the department reviews energy projects. Now, in accordance with other anti-renewable proclamations from the President’s desk, Interior “will consider the proposed energy project’s capacity density when assessing the project’s potential energy benefits to the nation and impacts to the environment and wildlife.” Under the guise of more efficiently managing domestic resources, Burgum’s office will prioritize permitting those that “optimize energy generation while minimizing their environmental impact.” In short, that means greenlighting gas and coal development, since fossil fuels provide more energy density.
“Gargantuan, unreliable, intermittent energy projects hold America back from achieving U.S. Energy Dominance while weighing heavily on the American taxpayer and environment,” Secretary Burgum stated. “By considering energy generation optimization, the Department will be able to better manage our federal lands, minimize environmental impact, and maximize energy development to further President Donald Trump’s energy goals. This commonsense order ensures our nation is stronger, our land use is optimized, and the American people are properly informed.”
In late July, New York State pulled the plug on planning the massive transmission projects needed to bring offshore wind energy to shore, a harbinger of BOEM’s decision to cancel all OCS lease areas. The New York State Public Service Commission (NYPS) said canceling transmission plans would protect ratepayers from shouldering the burden of paying for a potential bridge to nowhere, citing “significant federal uncertainty” in the announcement of its strategic termination of its Public Policy Transmission Need (PPTN) process. NYPS started that process in 2023, determining a need for a coordinated transmission project to deliver between 4.77 and 8 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy into New York City. Federal decisions to halt the permitting and construction of offshore wind generation platforms make achieving New York’s offshore wind goal impossible in the near term and undermine the central purpose of its transmission solicitation.
Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump instituted a sweeping moratorium on offshore wind development, likening turbines to “garbage in a field” that “litters” the country, assuring “no new windmills” would be built during his second term in office. The recently passed budget reconciliation bill championed by Trump disincentivizes both onshore and offshore development by shortening the window for developers to capitalize on tax credit incentives for wind projects. As one might expect, a growing list of well-intentioned developers has either paused work or pulled out of the U.S. market entirely.
