The Department of the Interior (DOI) is halting activity on a major offshore wind project off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut, aligning with President Donald Trump’s push to prioritize reliable energy sources, the agency confirmed Friday.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which oversees offshore energy development, stopped work on the Revolution Wind project on the federally-owned Outer Continental Shelf. The Biden administration had approved the construction plan in 2023, but the Trump administration has moved to unwind federal support for wind and solar energy.
“Americans deserve energy that is affordable, reliable, and built to last — not experimental and expensive wind projects that are proven failures,” DOI deputy press secretary Aubrie Spady said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In line with President Donald Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, Interior is putting an immediate stop to these costly failures to deliver a stronger energy future and lower costs for American families. Like President Trump said, ‘the days of stupidity are over in the USA!’”
The move comes after Trump signed a July 7 executive order directing the DOI to eliminate preferences for wind and solar facilities in federal policy. The administration also recently introduced new permitting hurdles for green energy projects and canceled the Lava Ridge Wind Project in southern Idaho, approved by former President Joe Biden shortly before leaving office.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote earlier this month that offshore wind projects “are known to kill eagles” and vowed to enforce the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act more aggressively. The agency also pulled a permit for a pending offshore wind development in New Jersey in March.
The offshore wind industry has faced mounting opposition in recent years. A turbine malfunction off Nantucket in 2024 forced beach closures after debris spread across the ocean, while environmental protests surged in 2023 over high-voltage transmission cables and a series of dolphin deaths along the East Coast. Fishermen have also pushed back, warning their industry cannot survive alongside offshore wind farms.
This month the Interior Department also canceled a large wind farm project in Idaho that was approved during the Biden administration.
The Lava Ridge Wind Project, approved in December 2024 by the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management, was slated to produce 1,000 megawatts of power with up to 231 wind turbines across nearly 57,447 acres in southern Idaho, Townhall reported.
Interior Department officials said they found “crucial legal deficiencies” in Biden’s approval, including failures to meet “statutorily binding criteria.”
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum reversed the decision, saying the department “will no longer provide preferential treatment towards unreliable, intermittent power sources that harm rural communities, livelihoods and the land.”
“Under President Donald Trump’s bold leadership, the Department is putting the brakes on deficient, unreliable energy and putting the American people first,” Burgum said. “By reversing the Biden administration’s thoughtless approval of the Lava Ridge Wind Project, we are protecting tens of thousands of acres from harmful wind policy while shielding the interests of rural Idaho communities. This decisive action defends the American taxpayer, safeguards our land, and averts what would have been one of the largest, most irresponsible wind projects in the nation.”
The project had been reviewed under a Trump memorandum titled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.”
In January, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed E.O. 2025-01, the “Gone with the Lava Ridge Wind Project Act,” directing all state agencies to cooperate with the Trump administration’s review. Several state agencies submitted letters to the Bureau of Land Management describing what they called a lack of consultation during the original review process.
In February, the Idaho House of Representatives unanimously voted to oppose the wind farm.