Trump Administration Halts Construction of Equinor's NY Offshore Wind Farm
In a stunning move late on Wednesday, April 16, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it has ordered a stop to the construction of Equinor’s Empire Wind offshore wind farm. The project had been approved in 2024 and was underway. The move is drawing sharp criticism from New York State Governor Kathy Hochul and leaving the industry stunned.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted a brief message on X writing that Interior in consultation with Commerce is “directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind project until further review of information that suggest the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
While the Biden administration did approve several projects late in its term, Empire Wind received approval for its Construction and Operations Plan in February 2024. The project also received its Clean Air Permit for construction in February 2024.
Norway’s Equinor acquired the Empire Wind lease area in 2017 and in June 2024, announced the execution of the Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for Empire Wind 1 power for 25 years at a strike price of $155.00/MWh. The financial close for the project was completed in December 2024. The expected total capital investments, including fees for the use of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, Equinor reported would be approximately $5 billion including the effect of expected future tax credits. New York had issued its final approvals for the project in May 2024.
New York’s governor who has already been fighting with the Trump administration over congestion pricing for vehicles in Manhattan issued an angry statement saying the federal government should be supporting its efforts for affordable energy “rather than undermining them.”
“This fully federally permitted project has already put shovels in the ground before the President’s executive orders—it’s exactly the type of bipartisan energy solution we should be working on,” said Governor Hochul in her statement. “As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy, and New York’s economic future.”
The news site FreeBeacon obtained a copy of Burgum’s memorandum to the acting director of BOEM. In it, he contends that “serious issues” were raised on the approval for Empire Wind. He says it was rushed through without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies.
Burgum also writes that he is directing BOEM to continue to review the federal wind permitting practices “to both existing and pending permits.”
Work had begun on the redevelopment of the site in Brooklyn which was to be used as the base of the wind farm during construction and its future maintenance operations. FreeBeacon reports rock work was scheduled to begin in the coming weeks at the offshore site along with other preparations. The wind farm was scheduled to provide power starting in 2027.
Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2, both of which were approved in 2024, are located about 12 nautical miles south of Long Island, N.Y., and about 16.9 nm east of Long Branch, N.J. Together the projects would have a total capacity of 2,076 megawatts of renewable energy that BOEM estimated could power more than 700,000 homes each year.
Trump in January 2025 ordered a review of the leasing and permitting practices but most expected it would be a stop to future activity. The administration however also pulled the EPA permit for construction on a New Jersey project. There are several other projects currently in the construction phase. The Biden administration had approved a total of 11 offshore wind farms and left others in review at the end of its term.