Dem
47
GOP
53
Revolution Wind, that is. That is the name of an offshore wind farm being built off the coast of New England. It cleared many and varied regulatory hurdles, has been under construction since August 2023, is roughly 80% complete, and is expected to provide a couple hundred jobs and to have a capacity of a little more than 700 MW. To put that in context, that's enough power for 350,000 houses, or one Trump tanning-bed session. And, as of this past Friday, construction is halted, thanks to a stop-work order issued by Matthew Giacona, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management at the US Department of the Interior.
What, exactly is the basis for stopping work on a project that cleared the vast array of regulatory hurdles, and that is almost done? Giacona's order brusquely refers to "concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial sea." Requests for further clarification, at least the ones from reporters, have gone unanswered.
It's certainly possible that some real national security issue has presented itself. And, if so, the administration is well within its rights to take a look at it, and to keep things close to the vest. However, for a number of reasons, that explanation doesn't really pass the smell test. To start, experts are having trouble coming up with a plausible scenario in which there would not only be a national security concern, but one that was not noticed by anyone during the last 4 years of development/regulatory approval, and yet was caught by Team Trump, which is not known for being either detail-oriented or... well... competent. Also setting off the B.S. radar is the fact that a very similar project, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), has NOT been halted. That one is located very close to a U.S. Navy base (Naval Station Norfolk), so if there was really a legitimate security concern, it seems probable it would also extend to CVOW. And, on top of all of these reasons for skepticism, there is the fact that the Trump administration lies about its real motivations all the time.
So, if the administration is not being forthright, what might be going on here? There are many theories that suggest themselves:
Who knows when we will find out. Tomorrow? Never? Anything is possible.
Oh, and these days, anytime the Trump administration does something controversial, it is wise to look around and see if Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has come up with a countermeasure. In this case, just hours after the White House stopped the Revolution Wind project, California announced a wide-ranging agreement to work with Denmark on research into green technology, cybersecurity and AI. We very seriously doubt that the Newsom administration managed to throw together an agreement in a manner of hours, but there might have been some indication that the Trump administration's decision was coming, or the Californians and the Danes might have hustled to dot the i's and cross the t's to be able to announce on the same day. (Z)