After the Trump administration paused all offshore wind projects over unspecified national security risks, this casts a new doubt over the future of the industry.
Since he returned to the office of the US President, Donald Trump has regularly slammed offshore wind projects, calling them “ugly.” However, when he first tried to pause the projects, a federal judge said this was illegal.
However, according to NPR, Trump seems to be getting his way, blocking all new permits for wind farms on federal lands and waters, using the vague explanation of “national security risks.” The Interior Department meanwhile said the move, which pauses leases “effectively immediately” for five projects under development in the Atlantic Ocean, came after the Pentagon allegedly identified “national security risks” in recent “classified” reports.
According to the Interior Department, this will give government agencies “time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”
Meanwhile, in a statement on X, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum expressed more than just security concerns. According to him, the projects are “expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms.” He added: “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.”
Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, subsidy-dependent schemes ever pushed upon American taxpayers. Here’s why @POTUS is prioritizing energy projects like clean, beautiful coal & U.S. natural gas that actually WORK
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) December 22, 2025
Among the five offshore wind projects paused by the Interior Department, some were expected to power millions of homes and businesses along the Atlantic coast. Moreover, several of them are already in advanced stages of construction.
Dominion Energy, working on a massive wind farm off the Virginia Coast, said it has been ordered to suspend work for 90 days
The company said in a statement that the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (CVOW) “has been more than ten years in the works, involved close coordination with the military, and is located so far offshore it does not raise visual impact concerns.”
According to the CVOW website, all foundations for the wind turbines had been installed in October 2025. The company warned that stopping the project would “lead to energy inflation and threaten thousands of jobs.”
While the risks in the Pentagon’s classified reports were not outlined, it did state that the Department of Energy had previously identified issues with radar interference.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Defense Fund’s lead counsel Ted Kelly said in a statement, “We should not be kneecapping America’s largest source of renewable power, especially when we need more cheap, homegrown electricity.”
President Donald Trump has been vocal in his dislike for the wind farms, complaining that they are expensive and ruin views. While on one of his golf trips in the UK this summer, he urged the UK to stop subsidizing the “ugly monsters.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on X to say she is working with other impacted states “to review every available option to get these projects back on track.”
Kirk Lippold, national security expert and former Commander of the USS Cole, said the projects were awarded permits “following years of review by state and federal agencies,” including the Coast Guard, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, the Air Force and more.
“The record of decisions all show that the Department of Defense was consulted at every stage of the permitting process,” he said.
