Courts and Congress Are Undoing Trump's War on Wind Power

Trump's administration paid TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion and Duke Energy $129 million to abandon offshore wind projects, redirecting the savings toward oil and gas. A Pentagon freeze on wind farm reviews has stalled 106 projects worth an estimated $47 billion across 21 states, prompting a lawsuit from renewable energy groups. Federal judges have repeatedly ruled against the administration, including restoring a tax credit rule for wind and solar projects this June.

There has been significant back-and-forth on offshore wind power in the United States. As part of ambitious plans for a green transition, the former Biden administration strongly supported offshore wind with both policy and federal funding. However, the Trump administration has since backtracked on U.S. wind energy goals, with President Trump openly opposing offshore wind. However, with greater political pushback from Congress and federal judges, it appears that progress on wind energy is hard to halt.

Since taking office last year, President Trump has sought to shut down several under-development offshore wind projects that had permits. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.” Throughout 2025, the Trump administration further restricted offshore wind development and cut funding to all types of wind energy.

In March this year, after months of failed legal battles, the Trump administration announced it would pay France’s TotalEnergies almost $1 billion to permanently halt its U.S. offshore wind projects. Then, in April, the government blocked two permitted U.S. wind energy projects from development. Trump said that his administration had agreed to pay millions of dollars in refunds to the companies that were developing the projects, so long as the funds were reinvested in oil and gas.

Now, as oil and gas prices are highly volatile due to geopolitical pressures and shortages, many other governments are considering accelerating the development of renewable energy capacity. This led Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind to cancel their projects and pivot to conventional energy sources.