Security concerns: US suspends offshore wind projects

2025-12-22 22:59:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The U.S. is immediately terminating leases for offshore wind projects currently being built off the Atlantic coast, citing safety concerns. In a statement, the Interior Department said it was halting five major projects to investigate how the windmills could interfere with radar and create other risks to East Coast cities.

President Donald Trump has long opposed wind power, saying it is unreliable and increases costs, and tried to stop all projects when he returned to office. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said that wind farms have no future in the U.S. power grid.

Renewable energy companies, as well as state leaders, have expressed alarm at the administration's stance.

In its statement, the Interior Department said the pause "addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of relevant adversary technologies and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects in close proximity to our population centers on the East Coast."

The five wind farms that are now on hold are being built off the coasts of New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Specifically, the announcement noted that officials are concerned about the “clutter” of radar interference that could obscure real moving targets or, conversely, create false targets. It added that the radar’s threshold for false alarm detection could be increased to reduce some of the clutter, but only at the risk of missing real targets.

Wind energy projects could make it difficult to “determine what is friend and foe in our airspace,” Burgum said in an interview with Fox Business on Monday, where he cited drone strikes between Russia and Ukraine and between Iran and Israel as examples.

Dominion Energy, the company behind the wind farm in Virginia, said its project is far offshore and "raises no visual impact concerns."

"The project's two pilot turbines have been operating for five years without causing any impact on national security," she said in a statement.

Dominion saw its share price fall more than 3% after the announcement. Danish wind energy giant Orsted saw its share price fall 12%, while shares of turbine maker Vestas fell 2.6%.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, described the pause as a "disorderly" move that "will increase the price of electricity in Connecticut and across the region."

"This project is nearing completion and is providing well-paying jobs in clean energy. Businesses and residents deserve economic predictability, yet with the administration's constant starts and stops, they are left with the opposite," he added.

Earlier in December, a federal judge struck down an attempt by President Trump to ban new wind energy projects in the US, calling it "arbitrary and capricious and contrary to the law."

On the first day of his administration in January, Trump issued a memo halting new permits and leases until a federal review was undertaken. Five months later, 17 U.S. states led by New York sued the administration, calling the ban an “existential” threat to the U.S. wind energy industry.

US energy demand is expected to expand significantly in the coming years, driven by the needs of artificial intelligence firms. Last week, Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, which is majority-owned by the president, said it was entering the energy business, announcing a merger with a merger firm, TAE Technologies./ CNA, translated by BBC