People worry about the impact of the wind project in New York

The Ruling of the Empire Wind 1 Offshore-Wind Development Project: The Biden Administration’s First Day of Office of Ocean Energy Management

The Empire Wind project has been placed on hold, pending further review of information that suggests the Biden administration may have rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.

On his first day in office, Donald Trump stopped permitting for new offshore wind projects. Empire Wind had state and federal permits before having a federal lease.

In a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the lead federal agency for permitting offshore wind projects, Burgum wrote that “approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis.”

The alleged rush was not given in the letter. The Interior Department did not respond to NPR’s request for comment. Matthew Eisenson, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said that the idea that the review of this wind project was rushed is not supported by evidence.

BOEM spent 2 1/2 years conducting an environmental review. The final product of that environmental review is an environmental impact statement that’s over 3000 pages long, with all of its appendices, and it’s very thorough,” Eisenson says. “ This rationale, it’s very suspect.”

Two years ago after a request from Congressional opponents of wind energy, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) began investigating whether the offshore wind industry kills whales. On Monday they issued their report. The GAO states that it does not think there will be deaths or serious injuries to whales from offshore wind related actions.

Kris Ohleth, the Executive Director of the Special Initiative on offshore Wind, says there’s no way the GAO report could be used to corroborate the stop work order for Empire Wind 1.

New York’s Clean-Energy Problem and the Trump Administration’s Implications for Power Demands: Wind Energy in the U.S.

The U.S. clean-energy industry is on pace for record growth this year. Wind energy makes up about 10% of the U.S. electricity mix — the largest single source of renewable energy.

Ohleth says all offshore wind projects are at risk, since the Vineyard Wind 1 project in Massachusetts and the Revolution Wind project in Rhode Island are important new projects this year.

The halting of Empire Wind 1 disrupts a much-needed electricity supply to a region with growing power demands for things like data centers, says Kit Kennedy,  managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The U.S. needs this kind of energy dominance. She says that the Trump administration should support it.

The goal for New York is to have 9,000megawatt of offshore wind energy available by 2035. Eisenson says that the goal is now at risk. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote in a statement that Burgum’s order stands to threaten 1,000 union worker jobs.

A senior science reporter with more than a decade of experience covers energy and the environment. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.

The Times of Change: The Construction of the Empire Wind, a Renewable Energy Project for the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, is Prescribed to Be a Foreign-Occupied Corporation

Construction on Empire Wind, which Equinor says had a gross book value of roughly $2.5 billion, started this month and was slated to finish in 2027. Once complete, it was supposed to produce enough carbon pollution-free electricity for 500,000 homes in New York. The construction employed 1,500 people, according to Equinor. The project included an onshore staging hub at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which was anticipated to create around 1,000 union construction jobs.

Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, stated in an opinion published in the New York Post last week that industrialization of our ocean was delivered by a foreign-owned corporation under the guise of climate action.

The Sierra Club said that if Trump had any ounce of compassion or care for the American people he would support renewable energy projects such as Empire that would create stable jobs and allow families to breathe easier. “Instead, Trump is yet again prioritizing the interests of Big Fossil Fuel, and making Americans pay the price.”

The oil and gas industries gave more than $75 million to get Trump elected. Trump said in January that no new windmills will be built in the US while he is in office.