U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has ordered a halt to an offshore wind project off the coast of Long Island, making good on an executive order from President Donald Trump in January that put a moratorium on new or upcoming offshore wind projects.
Burgum posted a statement Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing that initial evidence suggests the Biden administration “rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
The project, called Empire Wind 1, which is located about 14 miles from Jones Beach State Park, is slated to begin commercial operation in 2027, and would be the first offshore wind initiative to connect to New York City’s grid. Combined with a second project, Sunrise Wind, the offshore wind initiatives are expected to provide power to more than one million homes in New York.
Burgum’s order is the latest move from the Trump administration that further complicates New York’s efforts to hit its renewable energy and climate goals, in part by developing 9,000 megawatts in offshore wind energy by 2035.
The president issued an executive order last week directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to find “illegal” state and local laws related to climate and the environment that “impede” on Trump’s goal to increase energy production in the country.
In the order, Trump referenced New York’s Climate Superfund Act, calling it an “extortion law.”
Environmental groups were quick to decry Burgum’s order.
“Halting a fully permitted, shovel-ready project of this scale is unconscionable, especially at a time when we urgently need more clean, reliable energy to drive economic development and meet growing demand,” the Alliance for Clean Energy wrote in a joint statement with the New York League of Conservation Voters and Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
"The Administration is breaking the law while prioritizing the interests of their fossil fuel donors at the expense of working families - a reckless, dangerous move that turns back the clock on progress,” the group wrote.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul backed those groups, writing that Burgum’s order stands to threaten 1,000 union worker jobs.
“This fully federal-permitted project has already put shovels in the ground before the President’s executive orders — it’s exactly the type of bipartisan energy solution we should be working on,” Hochul wrote in a statement.
