The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced Monday that it is pausing leases for all five large-scale offshore wind farms being built in the U.S. due to “national security risks.”
Effective immediately, DOI is pausing Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind, Empire Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and Sunrise Wind. The DOI said Monday that “recently completed classified reports” from the Department of War flagged national security concerns, which the agencies will be evaluating.
“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement Monday. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers. The Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.”
Though the Biden administration championed the technology and other green energy resources, President Donald Trump and his administration have lambasted offshore wind, arguing that it is an expensive and intermittent resource that has been “heavily subsidized” in the U.S.
Trump has repeatedly critiqued the energy technology the Biden administration favored as expensive, unreliable and harmful to wildlife. Notably, a Clinton-nominated Judge Patti Saris ruled Dec. 8 to overturn Trump’s day-one executive order directing agencies to pause issuing new or renewed wind project permits as they await a “comprehensive assessment.”
“As for the national security risks inherent to large-scale offshore wind projects, unclassified reports from the U.S. Government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called ‘clutter,’” the DOI said Monday. “The clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects.”
The DOI argued that the pause will give the agencies time to “work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”
Notably, the Swedish government rejected some offshore wind permits in the Baltic Sea over national security concerns in November 2024, according to Reuters.
Several wind advocates argue that the energy technology does not pose a national security concern, with Kirk Lippold, former Commander of the USS Cole, arguing in a statement that “these projects will actually benefit our national security by diversifying America’s energy supplies. … Halting fully permitted projects under construction diminishes U.S. credibility on matters related both to national security and safeguarding investment.”
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a non-profit that has staunchly opposed offshore wind development off Massachusetts’ coast, applauded the Trump administration’s decision to pause the projects.
“Governor Maura Healey and her administration have championed offshore wind but that doesn’t change the fact that it is one of the most expensive forms of energy in America,” Paul D. Craney, executive director of the non-profit, said in a Monday statement. “Massachusetts and New England ratepayers desperately need inexpensive, clean, reliable, American natural gas to help drive down costs, not more expensive offshore wind energy and arbitrary climate mandates.”
The Biden administration’s push for offshore wind coincided with some local protests. Between 2023 and 2025, protests against offshore wind farms surged along the East Coast over concerns regarding high-voltage cables running through residential areas and dead marine animals washing up on the beach. Additionally, wind turbines off New England’s coast have malfunctioned and shed debris into the ocean, prompting concerns from environmentalists about harm to marine life.
The Biden administration permitted 11 offshore wind projects, though only one — New York’s South Fork Wind — is fully constructed. South Fork Wind powers 70,000 homes, according to CNBC.
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