The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, at the direction of U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, issued a stop-work order for the Empire Offshore Wind project. 

The federal lease for this project was signed by the first Trump administration in March 2017. Since the project broke ground, Equinor has employed 1,500 people to develop the site. Upon completion, Empire Offshore Wind was expected to generate up to 2.1 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power one million homes. 

Following the stop work order announcement, the BlueGreen Alliance issued a statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh: 

“Trump’s idiotic attacks on offshore wind development are killing our clean energy future. This stop-work order could shutter one of the largest offshore wind projects in the country, and for what? It’s certainly not a concern for environmental impact.

“We should all pause and consider why Trump wants to eliminate the U.S. offshore wind industry—an industry that creates jobs to meet growing power demand and that is already powering coastal communities around the world. If we let the administration get away with canceling this project, we’re giving them permission to cancel all offshore wind leases—one of the key solutions to reducing pollution and creating good, union jobs in the United States.”