A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s latest salvo in his unhinged war against wind turbines.
The president has hated all wind turbines, everywhere, on principle since the Scottish government approved a wind project off the coast of Aberdeen within sight of his golf course more than a decade ago.
Late last month, Trump escalated his crusade against one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of clean energy by indefinitely pausing all five offshore wind projects under construction in the U.S., citing unspecified national security risks.
On Monday, Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, halted the stop work order and held that work can continue on the Revolution Wind project, which will supply power to Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The wind farm, which has received all of its federal permits and is almost 90 percent complete, was just weeks away from delivering power to the electric grid when the Trump administration moved to block it, the AP reported.
Hearings for the other projects Trump targeted are scheduled for this week.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called wind energy the “scam of the century” and said Americans have paid “billions more for the least reliable form of energy.”
“The Trump administration paused the construction of all large-scale offshore wind projects because our number one priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people,” Rogers said. “We look forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”
Lamberth said the government had not explained why it needed to halt construction while it considers ways to mitigate national security concerns, and did not provide sufficient reasoning for its change in position, according to the AP.
The president has railed against wind farms for years, pushing bizarre theories about how wind turbines kill whales, cause cancer, and destroy property values.
Scientists say that the sound from wind turbines does not, in fact, mutate cells in the human body to cause cancer, nor do the turbines kill whales, according to FactCheck.org. Studies have also found that property values are not significantly affected by nearby turbines.
The president has nevertheless proposed drilling for oil and gas as a healthier and more aesthetic choice that is also allegedly safer for birds.
(The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that wind turbines kill about a quarter-million birds per year, which is far less than other man-made obstacles such as power lines, vehicles, and buildings.)
During a meeting Friday with oil industry executives, Trump insisted that wind farms are “losers,” according to the AP.
“I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills,” he said. “Maybe we get forced to do something because some stupid person in the Biden administration agreed to do something years ago. We will not approve any windmills in this country.”
Lost in Trump’s frequent rants is that wind farms benefit red states the most. The top four U.S. states in terms of wind energy production—Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas—are all GOP strongholds.
Iowa in particular has more than 100 large wind farms that provide thousands of jobs, with two more scheduled to be operational by the end of 2027. Thanks to renewable energy, Iowans enjoy some of the lowest electricity prices in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported in October.
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