Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered Equinor to halt all work late Wednesday at its Empire Wind project offshore New York. Equinor complied with the order early Thursday morning, per a report at Reuters.
Burgum cited concerns raised by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is housed at the Commerce Department, failed to conduct required thorough studies related to the environmental impacts and impacts on marine mammals before issuing permits enabling Equinor to proceed. Burgum’s action employs regulatory requirements applied to offshore oil and gas projects by Democrat and Republican administrations alike to offshore oil and gas projects over the last 30 years,
In an X post, Mr. Burgum said the halt would allow for “further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
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A spokesperson for Equinor told Reuters, “We have decided to stop offshore construction of the project following the order,” adding, “We will engage with the administration to find out why the order was issued after we had received all the permits previously.”
The Empire Wind project would sport an 810-megawatt nameplate capacity if completed, which the company says is designed to power around 500,000 to 700,000 homes annually. Those numbers are likely overstated given that offshore wind projects operate at around 25% efficiency during ideal weather conditions, which seldom actually prevail in the North Atlantic.
Located 12 nautical miles south of Long Island, Empire Wind would be the first offshore wind project connected to New York City’s grid, with a planned operational start in late 2026 and full commissioning by 2027. The project, which began construction in 2024 after receiving Biden-era approvals in November 2023, includes 54 Vestas 15 MW wind turbines and involves redeveloping the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a major hub for offshore wind operations.
Interestingly, Equinor has already invested approximately $5 billion, including a 25-year power purchase agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, in the project. For context, pipeline company TC Energy had already invested $3 billion in its Keystone XL Pipeline before the Biden White House’s autopen cancelled the project on January 20, 2021.
Secretary Burgum’s order sparked immediate backlash from renewable energy advocates and New York officials. Governor Kathy Hochul vowed to fight the decision, claiming the project would create over 1,000 union jobs and support the state’s renewable energy goals.
Industry groups like the Oceantic Network and the American Clean Power Association criticized the halt, arguing it sends a chilling signal to energy investors and undermines energy abundance, especially amid rising demand and consumer prices. They emphasized the project’s full federal permitting and urged the Department of Interior to lift the order to restore a predictable investment environment.
“Halting construction of fully permitted energy projects is the literal opposite of an energy abundance agenda,” Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in a statement. “With skyrocketing energy demand and increasing consumer prices, we need streamlined permitting for all domestic energy resources. Doubling back to reconsider permits after projects are under construction sends a chilling signal to all energy investment,” he added.
Grumet is right about the need for the federal government to find ways to speed up permitting for energy-related projects that actually provide reliable, abundant, and affordable power to the American people. But, where offshore wind is concerned, there are two big problems:
- Offshore wind is neither abundant, affordable, nor reliable; and
- We should not discard environmental and endangered species concerns in the name of speed.
For well over two years now, as dozens of whale carcasses have washed up on the beaches of northeastern states, credible concerns have been raised that the reviews conducted by Equinor and other offshore wind developers in conjunction with the Biden NMFS did not properly assess potential deleterious impacts these major industrial operations would have on marine mammals and New England’s marine fisheries industry in its zeal to speed these projects into production.
Elections have consequences, and one consequence of last November’s election is that the offshore wind industry will now be subjected to the same level of reviews that the offshore oil and gas industry has been required to satisfy since the Clinton administration. That is not a bad thing at all.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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