Donald Trump has form in objecting to wind farms, especially offshore projects that he regards as blighting the view from his golf courses.
To be fair, the president’s complaints aren’t just based on aesthetics. His administration has argued that offshore wind farms are expensive, unreliable and a threat to national security.
That latter claim may explain his dash to shut down projects even when 80% complete, as was the case with Danish wind-farm developer Orsted’s venture off Rhode Island last month.
He followed that up with moves to withdraw a permit for wind projects off Massachusetts with an estimated value of $14.6 billion.
Trump is pursuing “all-out war” on wind power, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said yesterday as he announced a lawsuit challenging the administration. Orsted is separately suing to revive its project.
By taking on solar as well as wind, Trump is throwing the US clean-energy industry into crisis as he pushes for more power to be generated from oil and gas. “Drill, Baby, Drill,” he posted on X yesterday.
In doing so, he’s rolling back his predecessor Joe Biden’s green agenda under the Inflation Reduction Act, once hailed as the most significant piece of climate legislation in US history.
China, meanwhile, is going in the opposite tack, literally doubling down on wind with giant twin-headed turbines off its southern coast. This year, it will install nearly three out of every four of the world’s new offshore turbines, according to BloombergNEF.
It’s an illustration of the bifurcation in energy policy as the world’s two largest economies make opposing bets on the future.
They can’t both be right.
Back in 2023, Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, warned that clean technology risked being “weaponized,” similarly to oil in the 1970s.
The speech is no longer available on the White House website. — Alan Crawford