Corporatist Bullying: Big Wind Is Ignoring Trump's Executive Order on Offshore Wind As If It's Entitled to Our Money

Guest Post from David Wojick via CFact.

President Trump’s day one Executive Order (EO) on wind power is a clear threat to the offshore wind projects that are under construction but they seem to be ignoring this threat. I find no evidence that they are disclosing this threat to the public or their stockholders.

Big Wind feels entitled to keep sucking in taxpayer dollars!

The EO is quite clear in initiating an investigation into terminating these leases. Here is the text:

“With respect to such existing leases, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Attorney General as needed, shall conduct a comprehensive 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, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.”

Here are the five OSW projects under construction listed by owner, with the most relevant statements that I could find on this threat:

1. Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project

“Dominion says offshore wind farm moving forward, despite executive order”

“Trump warned axing largest US offshore wind farm would be ‘most inflationary action'”

“Dominion Energy CEO Bob Blue doesn’t foresee impacts from President Donald Trump’s halting offshore wind leasing and permitting to its mammoth 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project currently in at-sea construction.”

2. Orsted’s Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects

“Orsted’s Sunrise Wind and Revolution wind projects that are under construction offshore New York and New England respectively should not be impacted by Trump’s order, CEO Rasmus Errboe told investors the company’s company’s Feb. 6 earnings call. Future developments, however, may be at risk.

“We are fully committed to moving them forward and delivering on our commitments,” Errboe said. “We do not expect that the executive order will have any implications on assets under construction, but of course for assets under development, it’s potentially a different situation.”

3. Equinor’s Empire Wind project

“But the international companies behind Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind say they are committed to protecting their investments and completing the projects amid the uncertainty as the “best way to create and protect shareholder value,” as Equinor’s CFO put it in a recent earnings call.”

4. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables’ Vineyard Wind project

“Trump’s pause on offshore wind leasing may have limited impact in New England”

Vineyard Wind itself is understandably silent as they are already in a warm Federal embrace thanks to the debris-laden failure of a 70-ton wind tower blade. They were allowed to resume construction just before Trump took office and issued his EO.

Overall it looks like the offshore wind construction projects are simply ignoring the Federal investigation into their legitimacy. Even under Biden the federal leasing agency made it clear that a lease is not a right to build, just a right to make a proposal. The leases themselves contain language allowing the Feds to change them with no limit to how big these changes might be.

Statements by offshore wind developers that their federal leases are not subject to the President's Executive Order are simply incorrect. The investigation into terminating these leases is underway.

Stay tuned to CFACT to see how this multi-billion dollar story plays out.

Dr. David Wojick is an independent policy analyst and senior advisor to CFACT. As a civil engineer with a Ph.D. in logic and analytic philosophy of science, he brings a unique perspective to complex policy issues. He specializes in science and technology-intensive issues, especially in energy and environment.

#OffshoreWind #Wojick #Trump #Dominion #CFact #ExecutiveOrder

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