Previously, the Interior Department has targeted in-progress offshore wind farms by filing suspension orders citing unspecified “national security” concerns. Developers of those projects were forced to pause construction last year, but work resumed in January and early February after federal judges ruled in the developers’ favor.
Earlier this month, the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project near Rhode Island began delivering electricity to New England’s electric grid. The 800-MW Vineyard Wind project near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, also installed the final blade on its 62-turbine installation. Three other offshore wind farms remain under construction along the eastern coast — including Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, which sent power to the grid for the first time on Monday.
Already, Vineyard Wind and the completed South Fork Wind project near New York have proved to be a crucial resource for grid operators during a brutal cold stretch earlier this year. And utilities say the forthcoming projects will be key to meeting the rising electricity demand from data centers, factory expansions, and electrified cars and buildings.
Offshore wind advocates decried the Trump administration’s decision to pay TotalEnergies to abandon its ambitions.
“After failing to shut down offshore wind through strong-arm tactics and litigation losses, the administration is now spending $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to force developers out of the market,” Sam Salustro, senior vice president of policy and market affairs for Oceantic Network, said in a statement.
“This political theater is meant to obscure the fact that offshore wind capacity is being pulled out of the pipeline when energy prices are skyrocketing, even as other offshore wind projects continue delivering reliable and affordable power to the grid,” he said.
Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, noted that continuing to bolster America’s LNG exports threatens to raise costs for consumers at home. “Working families will pay the price in their heating bills, their electricity bills, and at the pump,” she said in a statement.
Even before today’s deal with TotalEnergies, analysts didn’t expect the U.S. offshore wind sector to expand any further while Trump remains in office.
“Major policy changes and signals under a future administration will be needed if any offshore wind projects are to come online by 2035, in our view,” Harrison Sholler, U.S. wind analyst for BloombergNEF, said by email. “TotalEnergies handing back their leases doesn’t change that, although it slightly reduces the pipeline of projects that could come online if positive policy changes do occur.”
An update was made on March 23, 2026: New information about Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind sending power to the grid for the first time was added.