Just as construction was starting on a massive wind farm off the coast of Long Island, the Trump administration ordered an immediate halt on Wednesday that could spell a serious setback for hopes of powering New York City with offshore wind.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, called for the cessation of “all construction activities” on the Empire Wind project, which was designed to provide enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes in New York.
On the first day of his new term in office, President Trump signed an executive order that limited the approval of offshore wind farms. But Empire Wind had already received all of the permits it needed to get underway.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Burgum said the halt would allow for “further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, quickly responded that she would “fight this decision every step of the way.” She called the secretary’s move a “federal overreach” that she would not allow to stand.
The order came two weeks after Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, asked Mr. Burgum in a letter to “do everything in your power” to stop what he called an “underhanded rush” to build the wind farm. Another Republican representative from New Jersey, Jeff Van Drew, has pressed Mr. Trump to put a stop to other wind farms that were planned in the Atlantic Ocean to provide renewable power to New Jersey.
Mr. Trump’s stated opposition to windmills as a source of renewable energy has been seen as a serious threat by the offshore wind industry, which already was struggling to cope with global inflation and supply chain problems. Some projects that had been proposed off the East Coast have been canceled and others have lost financial backing from their sponsors.
Among the criticisms of offshore wind farms are that they are unsightly and that they harm marine mammals and the commercial fishing industry. The offshore wind industry and its supporters dispute those contentions and have pledged to take measures to ensure that whales and other mammals and fish are not endangered by their projects.
Ms. Hochul and New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, also a Democrat, have championed the development of offshore wind as a solution to their states’ rapidly growing demand for electricity. Their plans were critical components of the Biden administration’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
The Empire Wind project was designed to produce 810 megawatts. A sister project, known as Empire Wind 2, was intended to generate 1,200 megawatts, or 1.2 gigawatts.
Equinor, a Norwegian company, is leading the Empire Wind project. It acquired a lease of the site from the federal government in 2017 and placed the winning bid in New York State’s first large-scale competition for a contract to provide electricity from offshore wind.
The company announced in December that it had secured $3 billion in financing for Empire Wind 1. The company said construction of the project began in 2024 and was expected to be completed in 2027.
Equinor is also building a port for its offshore wind project at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which it said had created 1,500 jobs.
David Schoetz, a spokesman for Equinor, said in a statement on Wednesday that the company had just received notice from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which regulates offshore wind projects, to halt work.
“We will engage directly with B.O.E.M. and the Department of Interior to understand the questions raised about the permits we have received from authorities,” the statement said. “We will not comment about the potential consequences until we know more.”
Jason Grumet, the chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, a renewable energy trade group, said in a statement, “Doubling back to reconsider permits after projects are under construction sends a chilling signal to all energy investment.”
In Mr. Smith’s letter to Mr. Burgum, he said that by moving forward with the offshore project, Equinor was “endangering American lives” and the environment.
“Empire Wind cannot safely proceed until much needed further review be done to protect the public and our eastern seaboard,” Mr. Smith wrote. “I ask that you do everything in your power to halt Equinor’s underhanded rush to begin pile-driving and block construction until the critical assessment can be completed.”
Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, said in a statement that the residents of his county on Long Island were “extremely grateful” to President Trump, Mr. Burgum and Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, “for halting further work on offshore wind turbines which have created serious concerns for our firefighters, health officials and residents.”
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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