By MATTHEW DALY, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Division on Friday canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind initiatives, the most recent assault by the Trump administration on the reeling U.S. offshore wind business.
Funding for initiatives in 11 states was rescinded, together with $435 million for a floating wind farm in Northern California and $47 million to spice up an offshore wind challenge in Maryland that the Inside Division has pledged to cancel.
“Wasteful, wind initiatives are utilizing sources that might in any other case go in the direction of revitalizing America’s maritime business,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned in a press release. “Due to President Trump, we’re prioritizing actual infrastructure enhancements over fantasy wind initiatives that value a lot and provide little.”
It’s the most recent step by the administration towards renewable power sources
The Trump administration has stepped up its campaign towards wind and different renewable power sources in latest weeks, chopping federal funding and canceling initiatives accredited by the Biden administration in a sustained assault on clear power sources that scientists say are essential to the battle towards local weather change.
President Donald Trump has vowed to revive U.S. “power dominance” within the world market and has pushed to extend U.S. reliance on fossil fuels similar to coal, oil and pure fuel that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.
California Rep. Jared Huffman, the highest Democrat on the Home Pure Sources Committee, referred to as Duffy’s motion “outrageous” and deeply disappointing.
Trump and his Cupboard “have a cussed and mystifying hatred of fresh power,” Huffman mentioned in an interview. “It’s so dogmatic. They’re keen to eradicate hundreds of jobs and a complete sector that may convey low-cost, dependable energy to American customers.”
The canceled funding will likely be redirected to improve ports and different infrastructure within the U.S., the place potential, the Transportation Division mentioned.
Different wind initiatives are additionally being halted
Individually, Trump’s Vitality Division mentioned Friday it’s withdrawing a $716 million mortgage assure accredited by the Biden administration to improve and increase transmission infrastructure to accommodate a now-threatened offshore wind challenge in New Jersey.
The strikes come because the administration abruptly halted building final week of a virtually full wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Inside Division mentioned the federal government must overview the $4 billion Revolution Wind challenge and handle nationwide safety issues. It didn’t specify what these issues are.
Democratic governors, lawmakers and union employees in New England have referred to as for Trump and Inside Secretary Doug Burgum to reverse course.
Trump has lengthy expressed disdain for wind energy, incessantly calling it an unpleasant and costly type of power that “good” nations don’t use.
Earlier this month, the Inside Division canceled a significant wind farm in Idaho, a challenge accredited late in former President Joe Biden’s time period that had drawn criticism for its proximity to a historic web site the place Japanese People have been incarcerated throughout World Warfare II.
Trump blames renewable energy for rising power costs
Final week, with U.S. electrical energy costs rising at greater than twice the speed of inflation, Trump lashed out, falsely blaming renewable energy for skyrocketing power prices. He referred to as wind and photo voltaic power “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media publish and vowed to not approve any wind or photo voltaic initiatives.
“We’re not permitting any windmills to go up except there’s a authorized state of affairs the place any person dedicated to it a very long time in the past,” Trump mentioned at a Cupboard assembly on Tuesday.
Vitality analysts say renewable sources have little to do with latest worth hikes, that are based mostly on elevated demand from synthetic intelligence and energy-hungry knowledge facilities, together with growing old infrastructure and more and more excessive climate occasions similar to wildfires which can be exacerbated by local weather change.
Revolution Wind’s developer, Danish power firm Orsted, mentioned it’s evaluating the monetary impression of stopping building on the New England challenge and is contemplating authorized proceedings.
Revolution Wind was anticipated to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, able to powering greater than 350,000 properties. Along with hampering the states’ local weather objectives, shedding out on all that renewable energy may drive up electrical energy costs all through the area, Democratic officers say.
Critics say local weather and jobs are in danger
Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable power initiatives. These embrace reviewing wind and photo voltaic power permits, canceling plans to make use of massive areas of federal waters for brand new offshore wind growth and stopping work on one other offshore wind challenge for New York, though building was later allowed to renew.
Some critics say the steps to cancel initiatives put People’ livelihoods in danger.
“It’s an assault on our jobs,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee mentioned of the transfer to cease building of Revolution Wind. “It’s an assault on our power. It’s an assault on our households and their potential to pay the payments.”
Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, mentioned his union is “going to battle (Trump) each step of the way in which, irrespective of how lengthy it takes.”
Underneath Biden, the U.S. held the first-ever public sale of leases for floating wind farms in December 2022. Deep waters off the West Coast are higher suited to floating initiatives than these which can be anchored within the seabed, officers mentioned.
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