A Democrat Governor threw in the towel in this major fight with Donald Trump
Democrats are eager to find ways to resist the Trump administration.
But the tide is turning against them in a key battle.
And a Democrat Governor threw in the towel in this major fight with Donald Trump.
New Jersey Governor drops out of major offshore wind farm
Offshore wind farms have become a centerpiece of the Democrats’ green energy agenda.
Former President Joe Biden spent tens of billions of dollars trying to prop offshore wind on the East Coast.
Biden set a goal of having 10 million homes powered by offshore wind farms by 2030.
The return of President Donald Trump to the White House has brought wind energy development to a halt.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) announced the state would no longer fund the Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City.
Murphy was elected in 2017 with an ambitious plan for wind energy in the state.
The term-limited Governor is going to leave office after offshore wind became the latest green energy boondoggle.
Not a single wind farm was built during his administration.
Murphy called the offshore wind project “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs, drive an entirely new manufacturing supply chain, and secure energy independence.”
But he admitted the industry is facing significant challenges.
Wind energy fails to deliver on its lofty promises
New Jersey approved five offshore wind projects under Murphy, but none of them were able to get off the ground.
Danish wind energy company Orsted canceled two projects in 2023 citing inflation and supply chain problems.
Atlantic Shores was going to be an equal partnership between New Jersey and energy companies Shell and EDF.
The project relied on funding from the state to be viable.
Biden administration officials signed off the permitting for it during their final weeks in office.
Two other offshore wind projects in New Jersey still need permits from the federal government but those likely aren’t coming with Trump in office.
Trump issued an executive order halting permits for wind energy projects on and offshore on his first day in office.
Offshore wind has turned into a massive boondoggle in the places it’s been built.
The Vineyard Wind 1 project in Massachusetts only has one operational wind turbine out of 62.
One of the giant blades fell into the sea, leaving fiberglass in the ocean and debris that washed up on a nearby beach.
Trump has been a vocal critic of wind energy for being expensive, unreliable, and harming the environment.
“They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is,” Trump said in a May 2023 campaign speech. “They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.”
New York and other blue states on the East Coast are looking at halting offshore wind projects with Trump in the White House.
“New York could come out tomorrow and announce new projects but if we can’t get the federal government to act, then these projects would be dead in the water,” Citizens Campaign for the Environment executive director Adrienne Esposito said. “New York is somewhat handcuffed by the lack of a federal government that values wind.”
Donald Trump has stopped the offshore wind energy industry dead in its tracks.
