Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that five large offshore wind projects are being shelved by the Trump administration.
"🚨Due to national security concerns identified by @DeptofWar, @Interior is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!" Burgum wrote Monday morning on X.
Burgum noted the inefficiency of wind power as artificial intelligence, Bitcoin, and data centers drive up energy demands.
"ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED. @POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy policy & putting security FIRST!"
Burgum said in a televised interview earlier Monday morning that Trump's executive order to review offshore wind projects produced work from the Department of War showing "conclusively" that there are legitimate national security concerns over "radar interference," which he described as "a genuine risk for the U.S."
The five projects are close to "East coast population centers," too, Burgum warned.
The five suspended leases will require some "mitigation" with the companies running the projects, which were "heavily subsidized" under former President Joe Biden's administration, according to Burgum.
The pause will give relevant federal agencies "time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects," ​the Interior Department wrote in a statement.
The pause will affect the following projects: GE Vernova's Vineyard Wind 1, Danish energy firm Orsted's Revolution Wind and Sunrise ​Wind, Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind-Commercial, and Equinor's Empire Wind 1 projects.
Trump initiated the review on his first day in office, Jan. 20, 2025, with the executive order titled "Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government's Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Project."
"Nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas," the order noted, pointing to Monday's result of the review Burgum announced.
"With respect to such existing leases, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Attorney General as needed, shall conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy."
Reuters contributed to this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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