Temporary Cessation and Immediate Review of Federal Wind Leasing and Permitting Practices - When?

Did Governor Hochul pull a fast one against Trump's January 20th Executive Order?

Does the above image - ugly, stationary behemoths stretched across a picturesque ocean landscape - fill you with dread? It should. Offshore wind remains incredibly unproven in the face of reliable energy like coal, nuclear and gas. Taxpayers from New Jersey to California watched their energy bills go UP when offshore wind got involved in the grid. And many offshore wind companies aren’t even American!

Empire Wind, owned by Norwegian company Equinor, got lucky with New York Governor Hochul in its corner. Supposedly Hochul agreed to the Constitution gas pipeline through New York waters in exchange for huge subsidies and kickbacks by the foreign offshore wind group to move forward.

But Hochul has lied before. She paused her own $2.75 billion Interborough Express light-rail line to connect Brooklyn and Queens, which she repeatedly stated she would push through, to avoid losing voters before her last election. In 2024, Hochul announced Georgia-based company Public Partnerships LLC will oversee the New York Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program as opposed to the some 700 individual companies who oversee consumer accounts now. Hochul stated to a taxpayer who raised concerns about the personal assistance program’s undermining that she had been “lied to”. But that was a lie. Alliance to Protect Home Care pointed out the following, criticizing Hochul’s choice:

"(Public Partnerships LLC) PPL’s disastrous record isn’t a lie and neither are the concerns of this New Yorker,” said Bryan O'Malley, the executive director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care. “Here are the facts: PPL has a failed track record across multiple states, including missed payments to home care workers, wage theft allegations, and letting thousands of consumers and workers fall through the cracks."

So why would the Trump administration trust Kathy Hochul? Especially when this about-face on offshore wind is losing staunch supporters. This week, Protect Our Coast New Jersey, Clean Ocean Action, ACK for Whales and twelve fishing industry participants in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, to reinstate a stop work order Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued in April halting construction of Equinor's wind project. The twelve fishing industry participants are as grassroots as you can get: Seafreeze Shoreside (South Kingstown, RI), Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative (Point Pleasant Beach, NJ), American Seafood (Stonington CT and New London CT), Belford Co-Op (Belford, NJ), Long Island Commercial Fishing Association (Montauk, NJ), Lund’s Fisheries (Cape May, NJ), Heritage Fisheries (Westerly, RI), Old Squaw Fisheries (Montauk, NY), BKS Fisheries (New Bedford, MA) and Mackenzie Page LLC (Stonington CT).

Are these hardworking fishermen really who the Trump administration wants to betray? If the Trump administration waited, Equinor would have simply given up in the face of mounting losses and the triumph of Trump’s Executive Order would have been clear. Instead, someone listened to Kathy Hochul mouth off about something and now we have a lack of clarity on Trump’s offshore Executive Order: is it being enforced at all?

The reinstatement order lobbied by New York and Norwegian officials is silent on any basis for the administrative restoration of work permits. Nothing has changed regarding the wildlife destruction from insanely loud pile driving. Nothing has changed regarding offshore wind’s likely violation of the Endangered Species Act. Empire Wind is not legally entitled to an aware of a lease on the Outer Continental Shelf just because it lobbied for it. Indeed, Empire Wind is controlled by a foreign government (the government of Norway) and so it is ineligible to receive a lease under the Outer Continental Shelf Act.

The Outer Continental Shelf Act states:

the outer Continental Shelf is a vital national resource reserve held by the Federal Government for the public, which should be made available for expeditious and orderly development, subject to environmental safeguards, in a manner which is consistent with the maintainence of competition and other national needs…

Ignoring for a moment our own legislature has typos (ugh), the reinstatement order includes NO “environmental safeguards” at all. Endangered whales will continue to die from narrowed shipping lanes, offshore wind vessel strikes and deafening blasting destroying their communication methods. Therefore it can be argued Secretary Burgum’s reinstatement order violates this Act. The Outer Continental Shelf Act does not enable foreign lobbying at all either:

such States, and through such States, affected local governments, are entitled to an opportunity to participate, to the extent consistent with the national interest, in the policy and planning decisions made by the Federal Government relating to exploration for, and development and production of, minerals of the outer Continental Shelf.

You can support ACK4Whales and their anti-offshore wind lawsuit here.

Turn this offshore wind ship around, Trumpo! It’s not too late!