On his first day in office, the president signed an executive order that withdrew all parts of the outer continental shelf from new or renewed offshore leasing activity and suspended the approval process for all new onshore and offshore wind projects. The executive order also directed a review of all existing offshore leases, with termination possible.
The [Empire Wind 1] project, which was granted a lease from the federal government in 2017, promised to create more than 1,500 jobs and ultimately power 500,000 homes by building 54 wind turbines.
A spokesperson for Equinor, the Norwegian energy company behind Empire Wind 1, said construction will halt on the project. Empire Offshore Wind LLC, the limited liability company in charge of the project, is “engaging with relevant authorities to clarify this matter and is considering its legal remedies, including appealing the order”, the spokesperson said in email.
“If we now have a situation where every change in administration could mean the revoking of permits and stop-work orders, I think it breaks the certainty that we have moving forward,” said Rob Freudenberg, the vice-president of energy and environment programs at the Regional Plan Association, a civic organization that looks at how to improve the quality of life in the tristate area. “That should reverberate beyond the offshore wind industry itself.”