Four States Demand Answers On Offshore Wind Work Stoppage

Last week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum abruptly halted work on five offshore wind farms along the Atlantic coast, citing new, classified information from the Department of Defense (DoD) as the reason. This unexpected stop-work order has prompted the governors of the affected states—Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York—to demand a classified briefing from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to understand the nature of the supposed threat. These four Democratic governors jointly signed a letter on December 24 seeking transparency to protect their residents and clarify the emergency that led to the unprecedented halt of significant energy infrastructure projects, all of which had previously been approved by federal agencies. Notably absent from this collective response is Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican and a known supporter of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which is the largest and closest to completion among the five halted projects. Despite his prior advocacy for CVOW, Youngkin has remained silent and refrained from joining the other governors in demanding