It happened again. For the second time this year, the Trump administration has halted the construction of a massive offshore wind farm being built to power blue states.
On Friday, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Matthew Giacona, ordered the Danish wind developer Ørsted to stop all construction on the nearly complete Revolution Wind offshore project so the federal government can “address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States.” Giacona, a former lobbyist for offshore oil and gas companies, did not specify the nature of those concerns.
The move echoes an April order from the Interior Department that stopped all offshore work on New York’s Empire Wind project.
Last time, the controversial pause lasted just one month but cost the developer nearly $1 billion — and drove the project to the brink of cancellation. This time, with a Trump appointee now at the helm of BOEM, it’s unclear how long this costly work stoppage might last.
Construction began on Revolution Wind in January 2024 and is now 80% complete, according to Ørsted. The wind farm is being built off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in a federally designated “wind energy area” that was created after a five-year-long consultation between the state of Massachusetts, coastal towns, federal agencies, and branches of the military including the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Army Corps of Engineers.
President Donald Trump promised that America would see “no new windmills” on his watch. Friday’s order is just the latest attempt to make good on that pledge: In recent months the Trump administration has killed offshore wind leasing, paused permitting, and sunsetted tax credits critical to the economic viability of offshore wind farms.
“There were no major military issues that came to the fore in New England,” said wind energy veteran Bill White in an interview with Canary Media. From 2009 to 2015, White represented Massachusetts on a BOEM-led intergovernmental task force focused on the responsible siting of offshore wind energy areas south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket islands.
Specifics are lacking. The 
This could soon be in court. Ørsted 
It’s already a very public fight. The governors will hold separate news conferences today flanked by members of Congress, union workers and others.
Ørsted’s rough patch just got worse. The Danish renewables giant was struggling before Friday’s stunning news, and its stock swooned another 16% to record lows this morning.
It’s a stark new example of Trump’s wider war on wind, which the president and his lieutenants call unreliable and overly subsidized.
Keep an eye out for dealmaking. Earlier this year, Interior temporarily halted Equinor’s Empire Wind project off New York’s coast, which had recently begun construction.