Upon taking office, President Donald Trump issued a temporary withdrawal of all areas of the nation’s coasts for offshore wind leasing. Dozens of community groups had formed in opposition to offshore wind development during the Biden-Harris administration, concerned about the impacts on marine wildlife, the view shed and electricity rates, among other things. Though many of the activists were located in blue states and not Trump supporters, they were hopeful the Trump administration would be more responsive to their concerns. 

Amy DiSibio, board member for Nantucket-based ACK For Whales, told Just the News that not everyone grasped the executive order’s limitations. "It was pretty clear what it could and couldn't do. And I think a lot of the public got all excited that it's all over,” DiSibio said. 

The limitations of Trump’s moratorium became apparent recently when construction began on Empire Wind. The first phase will erect 54 turbines, each nearly 1,000-feet high, 30 miles off the south coast of Long Island, New York. When both phases are complete, the project will have nearly 150 turbines spanning across 80,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Quiet operation

The developer, Norway-based Equinor, didn’t hold any ribbon-cutting ceremonies with photo opportunities for politicians from New York and New Jersey holding shovels, nor was there even a press release announcing that construction on Empire Wind was beginning. 

When Vineyard Wind off the coast of Nantucket began construction and when it began delivering power, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a press release, and the legacy media provided favorable coverage. The public only became aware that the initial stages of Empire’s construction had started because of an email sent over a mariner group list on March 24 stating that rock installation was beginning on the Empire Wind 1 lease area. 

Trump’s moratorium orders a 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.” The order does not impact existing leases in the withdrawn areas, meaning that projects that have been permitted will not be paused. Besides Empire, that includes Vineyard Wind off the coast of Nantucket and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia — both of which are still under construction. 

Underwater noise

Writing in The New York Post, Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, explains that Equinor is dumping thousands of tons of rock, which protects the installation from ocean currents. This will be followed, Brady explained, by the driving of 180-foot monopiles into the seabed floor. 

“The tremendous underwater noise and vibration will harm all marine life, especially endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale,” Brady warns. The commercial fishing industry is also among the opponents of offshore wind development. The Texas Public Policy Foundation is suing the Department of Interior on behalf of six commercial fishing companies that say their livelihoods will be decimated by Vineyard Wind.  

Their lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2021, argues in 33 separate claims under various laws that the approval of the project violated federal law by ignoring multiple legal protections for impacted stakeholders, including conducting environmental assessments and allowing for timely public comment. 

The district court deferred to the Biden administration’s interpretation of federal law in permitting the project, and the companies filed a petition with the Supreme Court. The petition argues that following the ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which overturned the doctrine of "Chevron deference," and said the lower court shouldn’t have deferred to the federal agency’s interpretation of the law. 

Protect Our Coast NJ, Green Oceans, and Save Right Whales — a few of the community organizations opposing offshore wind development — filed separate “friend of the court” briefs in support of the fishing companies. 

Impacts of off-shore wind farms

DiSibio with Ack 4 Whales said that, in addition to the impacts on whales and the commercial fishing industry, which will impact America’s food supply, the turbines also disrupt radar. That presents a national security issue, because detecting threats from enemy vessels could be more difficult with the turbines installed. That area has a lot of shipping traffic, and is close to the busy New York City airspace, and disruptions to radar create safety issues. 

“I am shocked that Empire Wind was ever even considered as a lease area, and I am disappointed that that wasn't a high priority project to kill,” DiSibio said. 

DiSibio is a resident of Nantucket, and she has seen the debris that has been washing up on the shores of the island ever since a blade broke off a Vineyard Wind turbine last summer. On Thursday, Vineyard Wind finally removed the blade from the turbine, the Nantucket Current reported — 9 months after the blade broke. The turbine also suffered a lightning strike last month. 

Doug Lindley, a Nantucket-based pilot, posted aerial photos of the blade-removal operation on his personal Facebook page Thursday. A close-up of the turbine’s nacelle shows a blackened stump of where the blade was connected. Lindley noted that only one of the blades on the wind farm was turning as he flew over the area. 

Biden process failed to review project

After word got out that Equinor was commencing with construction on Empire Wind, Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., wrote to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to ask that the project be paused pending a review in line with Trump’s moratorium. Smith argues that the Biden administration, in approving the project, did not adequately perform a National Environmental Policy Act review, and so the review failed to consider impacts on national security, the environment and the economy of nearby communities. 

“Should Empire Wind be allowed to proceed under this flawed Biden process the results could be catastrophic, disrupting some of the nation's busiest waters and negatively affecting important radar systems,” Smith warned. 

Smith notes the impacts of the Vineyard Wind blade incident, which “forced beaches on the island to close during critically important tourist season and threatened sailors and fishermen who were out at sea before the collapse became public.” Smith also warns that extreme weather, such as a hurricane, could potentially cause multiple blade failures, spreading debris across the beaches of Long Island and New Jersey. 

Groupthink leads to bad decisions 

DiSibio said that, following the Vineyard Wind blade incident, she saw support for offshore wind plummet in her community. Debris from the Vineyard Wind blade incident spread far, washing up on the shores of Montauk, on the tip of the Long Island peninsula. Should something like that happen with Empire Wind, which isn’t a remote possibility, it would have enormous impacts over an enormous area, DiSibio said. 

She said she hopes it doesn’t have to come to that before the Trump administration pauses construction of Empire Wind pending a review of the potential impacts. Under the Biden administration, she said, there was no serious review of those impacts. Ack 4 Whales had sued to stop Vineyard Wind, taking the case to the Supreme Court after the lower courts ruled against them. In January, the high court declined to hear the case. 

She said that Trump has surrounded himself with people who are better informed about the problems of offshore wind, and she’s hoping the reviews that Trump ordered will be better informed as well. 

“When we're not really presenting full facts and putting all the most informed people at the table to make big decisions, you get your groupthink. And then you make bad decisions,” DiSibio said.