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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Offshore wind was supposed to save power-starved New England. Trump
blew up that plan
By Ella Nilsen, CNN
Updated:
7:30 AM EDT, Tue September 16, 2025
Source: CNN
New England, long burdened with some of the nation’s highest
electricity costs, is facing a growing energy crisis.
Winter cold snaps routinely send utility bills soaring in a region
where natural gas fuels most of the grid. Offshore wind was seen as the
answer — a long-promised relief for the densely populated,
power-hungry states.
Instead, the centerpiece project has been halted midstream: Driven by
the president’s longstanding distaste for wind turbines, the Trump
administration issued on the nearly finished Revolution Wind farm,
shuttering construction on an 80%-complete project and injecting panic
into a region already anxious about how to keep the lights — and the
heat — on in the decades to come.
“New England bet the farm on offshore wind,” said Sam Evans-Brown,
executive director of the nonprofit Clean Energy New Hampshire. “I
think that people thought it’s going to be much easier to build
renewables 40 miles out in the ocean, where you aren’t as likely to
bump into a NIMBY.”
Indeed, the not-in-my-backyard crowd has less to complain about when
the eyesores in question are barely visible on the horizon. But that
didn’t stop anti-wind groups from for their campaign.
New England has been dogged by challenges around energy projects for
years. The region is small and lacks the space to build vast land-based
solar and wind farms. Its energy infrastructure is also lagging,
experts told CNN. It is literally the last stop of the nation’s
natural gas pipelines and gets much of its natural gas shipped on ocean
tankers.
The Revolution Wind farm, off the coast of Connecticut, was set to
generate enough electricity to power upwards of 350,000 homes starting
next year. There are no ready alternatives to replace it quickly, said
Katie Dykes, commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy &
Environmental Protection.
The Trump Interior Department did not respond to several questions from
CNN, citing around the project.
New England has spent the last several years relying on aged,
oil-burning power plants to help keep the lights on during cold winters
and AC running during hot summers.
“My fear is that if this project is canceled when the grid is under
stress, that’s what we’ll have to continue to rely on,” Dykes
said. “Many of those resources are beyond their end of useful life.
They need to be allowed to retire, because we just can’t feel totally
confident that when they’re called on, that they can actually run.”
New England energy experts say Dykes is correct — there are no other
options to backfill the sheer amount of electricity Revolution Wind and
other offshore projects were set to add to the regional grid, if Trump
continues to block them. Dykes said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is
supportive of adding to the region’s natural gas pipelines, but it
would take years to permit and build new pipelines that could carry
more gas to the region, whereas Revolution Wind was set to start
operating next year.
Ahead of the winter season, New England’s grid operator already
issued a stark warning about delaying the project.
“Delaying the project will increase risks to reliability,” regional
grid operator ISO New England said in response to the stop work order.
The threat to the offshore wind project and other major projects like
it “will stifle future investments, increase costs to consumers, and
undermine the power grid’s reliability and the region’s economy now
and in the future.”
Trump and his cabinet members have repeatedly said offshore wind is the
most expensive form of energy. Speaking in Europe recently, Trump
Energy Sec. Chris Wright castigated European energy generated from wind
farms as too costly.
“We don’t want to be in the race for the most expensive electricity
in the world,” . “We want to be in the race for the most affordable
electricity in the world.”
Offshore wind projects have high initial costs, in large part because
of limited supply chains and high inflation rates that have dogged the
entire US economy for several years. But those costs are offset by the
inexpensive electricity wind turbines generate. Wind farms also have
lower ongoing costs than fossil fuels because wind is free, said
Francis Pullaro, president of RENEW Northeast, a clean energy industry
association based in New England.
Without wind, homeowners and businesses will see their rates skyrocket.
Consumers could see $200 million in annual higher energy market costs
starting next year if Revolution Wind does not move forward, the
Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection estimated
in
Wind energy is also highly reliable and cheap in the wintertime,
benefiting from blustery New England weather, Dykes said.
“Folks have talked about the wind resource in New England as sort of
like the Saudi Arabia of wind, if you will,” she said. “Offshore
wind has been viewed as a real compliment to help maintain grid
reliability during those peak winter periods, as well as contributing
during hot summer weather, too.”
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