Courts and Congress Are Undoing Trump's War on Wind Power
By Felicity Bradstock - Jul 04, 2026, 10:00 AM CDT
- 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. Then, at the end of June, the Trump administration announced it would be paying Duke Energy $129 million to abandon its offshore wind plans for North Carolina.
The U.S. Department of the Interior said that the cancellation of the deals would help “promote U.S. energy security and affordability” by funnelling funds “away from intermittent, higher-cost energy sources toward proven conventional solutions”. This comes at a time when oil and gas prices are highly volatile due to geopolitical pressures and shortages, prompting many other governments to consider 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.
Earlier in the year, a U.S. federal judge had ruled against the Trump administration and allowed companies developing five permitted East Coast wind farms to continue construction, after Trump tried to prevent them from being built. Sam Salustro, a senior vice-president of pro-offshore wind group Oceanic Network, stated, “Unable to defend its offshore wind actions in court, the administration is using taxpayer dollars to buy foreign companies out of legally executed offshore wind leases.” Salustro added, “Costs to consumers’ pocketbooks are staggering.”
Restricting wind energy development has been controversial and highly challenging for the Trump administration. In May, 55 members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) voicing concerns that new federal policies were delaying the development of wind projects while consumer energy bills continue to rise. The letter urged the Trump administration to expedite regulatory approvals for new wind projects.
Then, in June, a coalition of renewable energy groups requested in court that the Pentagon resume reviews of onshore wind projects, aiming to end development delays caused by the Trump administration’s opposition to wind power. Since April, the Pentagon has halted all military reviews of proposed wind farms, which are conducted to ensure that turbines do not interfere with local radar or flight paths. Most new wind projects are subject to these reviews, and without them, projects are becoming severely delayed.
The coalition told the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon that the delays have resulted in a “total halt of all wind development in the United States” in a lawsuit filed against the DoD in June. At least 106 planned wind projects in 21 states have been stalled indefinitely, representing an estimated $47 billion in potential investment.
“The American wind industry is ready to meet growing energy demand,” stated the CEO of the industry trade group American Clean Power Association, Jason Grumet. “We need the U.S. government to carry out normal review and permitting processes to keep the lights on for American families and businesses.”
Meanwhile, also in June, a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the guidance issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury last August, which had eliminated the ability for wind and solar projects to prove their eligibility for certain tax credits by showing that 5 per cent or more of the total cost of the project had been spent, should be reversed. Judge Kollar-Kotelly argued that the Trump administration had not satisfied the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement for “reasoned decision-making” when establishing the guidance.
The wind energy sector’s recent legal victories could encourage Trump to abandon his fight against wind power, as restricting wind development is becoming increasingly controversial and costly. Several federal judges have ruled in favour of wind energy companies in recent months. Meanwhile, lawmakers and consumers are increasingly pressuring the Trump administration to support the diversification of the U.S. energy mix amid rising fossil fuel prices and global shortages.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
