Trump has taken jabs at offshore wind all year. On Monday, he threw a haymaker that threatens to knock the U.S. industry to the mat.
The president’s decision to pause construction of five offshore wind projects capable of powering nearly 2.7 million homes along the East Coast marked an escalation of a yearlong effort to shut down the industry, jolting the political debate surrounding rising electricity prices.
In New England, the regional grid operator warned the stoppage could send power prices soaring and threaten the reliability of its six-state electric system. In Virginia, the utility building the country’s largest coastal wind project said the pause hinders its ability to keep up with rising electricity consumption from data centers. And on Capitol Hill, the order threatened to stymie a long-debated bipartisan energy permitting bill winding its way through Congress. Senate Democrats said Monday they were halting negotiations over the bill in response to the stoppage.
Rising electricity prices have emerged as a growing political problem for Trump’s party and as a campaign theme for Democrats hoping to claw back control of Congress next year. And Trump’s newest move jeopardizes major new power sources that were already on their way to completion.
“It is coming at a time when the main topic is affordability, affordability. This is running contrary to that in my opinion,” said Tim Ennis, a power market analyst at GridStatus, a website that tracks wholesale electricity markets. “If you want to make the argument that these projects are too expensive and we shouldn’t build more, that’s one thing. But these projects are in the water.”
Don(ald) Quixote Trump fighting windmills. Someone please wake me up when this fucking nightmare ends.