The Trump administration’s order to stop construction of the nearly completed Revolution Wind project is putting hundreds of offshore workers out of a job — including dozens of local fishermen who voted for President Donald Trump and are asking him to reverse course.
A week ago, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Matthew Giacona, ordered the Danish wind developer Ørsted to stop all offshore work on the Revolution Wind farm so the federal government can“address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States.” Giacona did not specify the nature of those security concerns.
Construction began on the 704-megawatt project 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 received sign-offs from multiple branches of the military, Canary Media reported Sunday.
Though often seen as opposed to offshore wind, many New England fishermen have made peace with the industry in recent years.
They increasingly rely on part-time salaries from wind companies as fishing revenues dry up. Over the past two years, Ørsted put 80 fishermen to work on the Revolution Wind project, paying out $9.5 million to captains, deckhands, and fishing boat owners, according to Gary Yerman, a Connecticut-based fisherman who founded and leads a fisher cooperative called Sea Services North America, which has an active contract to work on Revolution Wind.