President Trump launched a broad attack on the wind power industry in the United States, with a sweeping executive order that could block not just new offshore wind farms in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans but potentially many smaller wind farms on federal land and even on private property across the country.
The order, which Mr. Trump signed in the Oval Office on Monday night, would halt all leasing of federal lands and waters for new wind farms pending a fresh government review of the industry. It also directs federal agencies to stop issuing permits for all wind farms anywhere in the country for the time being, a move that could disrupt projects on private land, which sometimes need federal wildlife or other environmental permits.
While the order does not call for a freeze on wind projects that are already under construction, Mr. Trump directed the U.S. Attorney General and secretary of the interior to explore the possibility of “terminating or amending” any leases that have already been issued. That means projects that have already received federal approvals could face new hurdles.
Taken together, the moves could prove crippling for the U.S. wind industry, which provides 10 percent of the nation’s electricity and is a major source of power in Republican-led states like Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas. The wind industry currently has nearly 40 gigawatts worth of projects — enough to power tens of millions of homes — under development in the Atlantic Ocean and in states like Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.
The Biden administration approved permits for 11 commercial-scale wind farms along the Atlantic Coast. Five of those are under construction and one has been completed. But Eastern states like New York and Massachusetts were hoping to build even more offshore wind projects to meet their renewable energy targets. Those goals are now in peril.
The wind industry sharply criticized Mr. Trump’s order, saying that it ran counter to another declaration the president made on Monday that the nation was in an “energy emergency” and needed all the electricity it could get to power new data centers and factories.
“Wind power is an essential element of our ability to serve soaring electricity demand for manufacturing and data centers that are key to national security,” said Jason Grumet, chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, a renewable industry trade group. “The possibility that the federal government could seek to actively oppose energy production by American companies on private land is at odds with our nation’s character as well as our national interests.”
Mr. Trump has been a fervent critic of wind power for years, ever since he unsuccessfully tried to stop an offshore wind farm from being built in view of one of his Scottish golf courses. In a speech shortly after his inauguration on Monday, the new president launched into a lengthy diatribe against wind turbines.
“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” Mr. Trump told a crowd of supporters at the Capital One arena in Washington. “Big ugly windmills, they ruin your neighborhood.”
His order for a broad crackdown on new wind farms adds to the mounting challenges for the industry.
While wind power remains one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity in the United States, that growth has slowed in recent years in the face of soaring costs and high interest rates. Many wind companies are now facing delays in securing connections to the grid as well as opposition from rural communities worried about disruptions from new turbines the size of skyscrapers. More than 400 counties have imposed local restrictions or bans on wind turbines to date, including much of Tennessee and Kentucky.
Developers of offshore wind projects — which are larger, more complicated and more expensive — have also struggled with increased expenses and supply-chain hurdles.
On Monday, even before Mr. Trump signed his executive order, Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, said that it would write down roughly $1.7 billion on projects off the eastern coast of the United States. The company attributed the setback to higher interest rates in the United States, which have raised the costs of the company’s projects, as well as construction delays on Sunrise Wind, a large project off Montauk, N.Y.
On a call with analysts on Tuesday, Mads Nipper, Orsted’s chief executive, blamed the write-down on “the immature and nascent industry” in the United States, which has not completed large offshore wind farms, compared with many such projects in Europe.
Mr. Trump’s order will make it even harder, experts said. The possibility that Mr. Trump could try to undo leases and projects already approved by the Biden administration could also create a longer-lasting drag on the industry.
The order “could have negative implications beyond Trump’s term because project developers may be wary of investing in a capital-intensive sector that faces demonstrable high election risk,” said Timothy Fox, a managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a consulting firm.
Monday’s executive order told federal agencies to conduct a “comprehensive” review of federal wind permitting practices, including studying the ecological effects of wind turbines on birds and marine mammals. Mr. Trump has insisted that offshore wind farms are killing endangered whales in the Atlantic Ocean, although scientists have said they haven’t found evidence to support that.
The order also adds fresh legal uncertainty for the industry. The Biden administration had been defending wind projects that are facing legal challenges from local opponents, including Revolution Wind and South Fork near Rhode Island, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and the Maryland Offshore Wind Project.
But Monday’s executive order makes it unlikely the Trump administration would continue to defend those projects vigorously in court, Mr. Fox said.
“Many offshore wind projects have been approved or are close to approval after undergoing years of reviews,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents oil, gas and wind companies working offshore. “In any emerging industry, even minor delays can lead to multiyear setbacks, resulting in bottlenecks and higher costs that ultimately impact energy consumers.”
Plans for floating wind turbines off the coast of California and in the Gulf of Maine, for instance, have not yet received federal approval and are at risk of being stopped.
As part of his order, Mr. Trump issued a moratorium on the Lava Ridge Wind Project, a 231-turbine development on federal land in Idaho that would be visible from a World War II historic site and has been opposed by the entire state legislature. That project had already received permits from the Bureau of Land Management under the Biden administration.
Opponents of offshore wind projects — which often include fisherman worried about disrupted operations, landowners worried about spoiled views and some groups linked to the fossil fuel industry — cheered Mr. Trump’s executive orders.
“We are grateful that the new administration is protecting our iconic, multigenerational trade from foreign energy companies and alphabet soup agencies destroying our way of life,” said Jerry Leeman, chief executive of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, which opposes offshore wind projects.
Stanley Reedcontributed reporting
