Offshore Wind’s EPA Check (Empire Wind 1 at risk)

“Every statement pushing back on Interior Secretary Burgum’s directive would equally apply to the Keystone XL pipeline situation. However, since Keystone involved crude oil, it was not entitled to the rights that green energy demands. Yet, the current critics quickly point out that the U.S. needs all forms of energy.”

On April 16, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to order Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor (formerly Statoil) to cease all construction activities related to its offshore wind project, Empire Wind 1. The announcement came when Equinor notified BOEM to begin construction activities.

The initial work included dumping the first load of rocks on the ocean floor to protect the wind turbine foundations. The work was scheduled to start in late April, with foundation pile-driving to follow.

The announcement was a stunning reversal of government energy policy. It has upset Northeastern politicians and utility regulators counting on offshore wind to help meet their state clean energy mandates. The actions of the Trump administration have forced companies active in the renewable energy field to adjust their plans.

Secretary Burgum also ordered the Department of the Interior to continue its review of federal wind permitting practices related to existing and pending permits and approvals. President Donald Trump ordered the review on his first day in office, January 20. Burgum noted that the Biden administration approved permits for the project and ultimately approved it without conducting a proper analysis.

Background

Empire Wind 1 is an 810 megawatt (MW) offshore wind project. It will contain 54 Vestas 15 MW offshore wind turbines whose foundations will be pile-driven into the ocean floor to hold them in place. The project will deliver power starting in late 2026 and be fully operational in 2027. It has signed a 25-year power supply agreement with the State of New York at $155 per megawatt-hour, or 15.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for ratepayers. That price is for only the power. This exceeds the average electricity delivery price in the United States.

The project commenced following Equinor’s successful bid in an offshore wind lease sale in 2017. BOEM issued its formal project approval in November 2023, and three months later, it approved the massive Construction and Operation Plan (COP). Equinor completed its financial arrangements for the project in January 2025.

The wind farm is 12 miles southeast of Long Island and directly in the shipping lanes heading into New York Harbor. It also lies in the approach paths for local airports, which raises radar interference issues. One aspect of Empire Wind 1 involved Equinor’s plan to refurbish the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal for staging and managing the construction project and to base future repair and maintenance operations.

Equinor said it has spent $2 billion on the project, which is employing about 1,500 workers. Empire Wind 1’s book value was estimated at around $2.5 billion, including the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Equinor reported that the project has drawn around $1.5 billion under its term loan as of the end of March. In a full-stop scenario, the $1.5 billion would be repaid to the project-finance lenders, and the company would be exposed to termination fees to suppliers, Equinor said.

Equinor is cutting its renewables investments to $5 billion over the next two years, down 50% from its original investment plan. It is also “lowering expected capacity in renewables” to between 10GW and 12GW by 2030.

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Offshore wind development began under the Obama administration. Offshore wind lease sales were penciled into the 5-year offshore lease schedule, and the first Trump administration did not disrupt the program. During 2021-2024, the Biden administration made offshore wind a key component of its green energy program.

BOEM approved 11 commercial-size offshore wind projects along the coastline of the United States. The approvals were key in the Biden administration’s plan to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Trump was an outspoken critic of offshore wind during the 2024 election campaign.

‘Green’ Criticism

Green-group reaction to the “chilling signal” of the stop-construction order were swift and sharp. The American Clean Power industry association said halting the construction of fully permitted energy projects is the “literal opposite” of Trump’s agenda to promote all energies.

Climate Jobs New York, a coalition of labor unions, said New York needs offshore wind and other clean energy projects to help address rising energy costs and create jobs. “It is out of touch to suggest that killing good jobs and energy sources is a good idea when working New Yorkers are struggling with rising costs of living and our grid needs stability,” the coalition stated. Furthermore, it added that the United States couldn’t be energy independent without offshore wind.

Liz Burdock, CEO and co-founder of Oceantic Network, a group that advocates for the expansion of the U.S. offshore wind supply chain, said,

Stopping the work on the federally permitted Empire Wind 1 offshore projects should send chills throughout all industries that invest in and hold contracts with the United States Government…. Stopping a permitted, financed and approved energy project from going forward sends an unmistakable message to all business – not just those in the offshore industry – about the safety of their investment in the U.S.

Oceantic reported Empire Wind’s supply chain spans 23 states, has attracted $1.6 billion in investment, and support more than 3,500 jobs.

David Shadburn, the Legislative Director of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), said, “If the government can’t be trusted to honor permits after thorough environmental assessments, it will have an effect on the clean energy sector and the entire business industry.” In his view, the last thing the country needs is to ban clean, affordable energy.

Fishing, Tourism Support

On the other hand, the commercial fishing industry and others have railed against ocean industrialization that would be the outcome of building the massive planned offshore wind projects. Others have pushed back because of concerns about the impact of offshore wind farms on tourism – such as the weeks-long shutdown of Nantucket Island beaches when the Vineyard Wind a broken turbine blade sent tons of toxic debris into the ocean only to have it wash ashore all along the islands and coastlines of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

“It’s the industrialization of our ocean, rubber-stamped by federal agencies and delivered by a foreign-owned corporation under the guise of climate action,” wrote Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “It is corporate welfare disguised as environmentalism, and the costs are far too high.”

Double Standard?

While we could add many more comments pushing back on Burgum’s directive and demanding it be rescinded, we are amazed at the similarities of this move to President Joe Biden’s day-one in office Executive Order revoking the permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on the grounds that it was harmful to the environment. The shoe is currently on the other foot. The similarities of the two moves are striking.

Not only was Keystone XL a joint Canada-U.S. pipeline project that had taken years to develop, but it had received all its environmental approvals and was under construction with thousands of workers employed. In 2014, an 11-volume U.S. State Department report on the pipeline found that it would not significantly contribute to carbon pollution. None of that mattered to a president who wanted to be known for his support of green energy and being against fossil fuels.

When a Facebook posting commented that revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit would cost 11,000 jobs, the fact-checkers went to work. They acknowledged the environmental approvals. Their issue was that the statement lacked context. They meant the thousands of lost jobs were future jobs and would be temporary and related to the construction work. Therefore, PolitiFact determined that the post was “Half True.” How many offshore wind jobs cited are temporary for the projects’ construction?

Every statement pushing back on Interior Secretary Burgum’s directive would equally apply to the Keystone XL pipeline situation. However, since Keystone involved crude oil, it was not entitled to the rights that green energy demands. Yet, the current critics quickly point out that the U.S. needs all forms of energy.

Conclusion

We are witnessing the first blows in a significant legal dispute involving offshore wind that is currently underway. In a future article, we will have more to offer about the legal battle.

The post Offshore Wind’s EPA Check (Empire Wind 1 at risk) appeared first on Master Resource.

Source: https://www.masterresource.org/offshore-windpower-issues/offshore-winds-epa-check/