A fisherman’s association is backing the Trump administration’s decision to halt a massive offshore wind project being built off the coast of New York, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday.
The Trump administration has also initiated a comprehensive review of current offshore wind permits.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum instructed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to stop all construction on the Empire Wind offshore wind project helmed by the foreign energy developer Equinor, according to Burgum’s announcement on X and a memorandum reviewed by the Beacon. New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), a nonprofit that represents the interests of fishermen in New England, said it supports this development.
“Our government should never sell out American fishermen to foreign green energy companies,” CEO Jerry Leeman wrote in a press statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “NEFSA applauds Secretary Burgum for pressing pause on the Empire Wind project, which regulators rushed to approve over the objections of working commercial fishermen and their families.”
NEFSA CEO Jerry Leeman reacts to pause on Empire Wind.
Read his entire statement⬇️https://t.co/KHydqWJD7P pic.twitter.com/cChAHj9nXe
— NE Fishermen’s Stewardship Assoc. (@fishstewardship) April 16, 2025
“We hope and expect the new Administration will end the era of special treatment for foreign developers industrializing America’s fisheries,” Leeman said.
Equinor is based out of Norway. The Empire Wind project was one of the final lingering Biden-era offshore wind endeavors after Trump signed an executive order on day one of his second term that banned or restricted new offshore wind farms. The order, however, did not specifically suspend projects that had already secured federal leases and permits, such as Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project.
“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote in the memo. He wrote that the Empire Wind project will remain on hold indefinitely pending a thorough review to “address these serious deficiencies.”
The administration has also championed “unleashing” the domestic production of energy and prioritizing “American workers and businesses” when it comes to “arrangements that result in disbursements of Federal funds,” according to another day-one executive order.
Empire Wind 1 was green-lit by the Department of the Interior (DOI) under Biden’s watch in November 2023, and 147 wind turbines were expected to be built within the lease area, according to the BOEM website.
.@Interior, in consultation with @HowardLutnick, is directing @BOEM to immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) April 16, 2025
“It’s impossible to have offshore wind and do commercial fishing in the same area,” Dustin Delano, a fourth-generation Maine lobsterman and NEFSA’s chief operating officer told the DCNF in an interview before the new development broke. Delano described the travails of fishing around offshore wind facilities and said that their community was “extremely fearful” regarding potential “offshore wind development.”
This comes after Trump signed an executive order on April 9 to “revitalize U.S. maritime industries” and “review ways to improve competition within the private sector.” The president said in the order that the industry had been “weakened by decades of government neglect” and vowed to prioritize its restoration.
The DOI, the BOEM and Equinor did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment or a copy of the memo reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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