Trump admin halts 6 GW of offshore wind leases again

The Trump administration has again paused offshore wind leases for five major projects totaling nearly 6 gigawatts of generating capacity along the U.S. East Coast, citing national security concerns related to radar interference. Interior Secretary Doug Bergum referenced emerging risks from adversary technologies and vulnerabilities posed by large-scale offshore wind farms near population centers. The affected projects include Revolution Wind (Connecticut and Rhode Island), Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Vineyard Wind (Massachusetts), and Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind (New York). The Department of the Interior based its decision on unclassified and classified Pentagon reports but did not specify the agencies involved or provide links to these documents. Radar interference from wind turbines is a known issue that has been studied for over a decade, with various mitigation strategies developed and implemented. Wind turbine blades create complex Doppler signatures that can challenge radar detection, but adaptive processing algorithms and careful wind farm siting have allowed radar systems to filter out these interferences effectively. A 2024 Energy Department report noted that while