The U.S. Department of Transportation is withdrawing or terminating $679 million in funding for 12 port and infrastructure upgrades that would support offshore wind projects, it announced Friday.
“As part of the Department of Transportation’s review of all discretionary grant programs with obligated and unobligated projects, USDOT identified 12 offshore wind grants and project selections that were not aligned with the goals and priorities of the administration,” the department said in a release.
The defunded projects include the Sparrows Point Steel Marshalling Port Project, which had been awarded $47.3 million in Port Infrastructure Development Program; the Arthur Kill Terminal, an offshore wind port in New York, which had been allocated $48 million in PIDP funding; and the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Multipurpose Marine Terminal, which had been allocated $426.7 million in Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects funding.
The department’s release said the Trump administration has “refocused” DOT and its Maritime Administration “on rebuilding America’s shipbuilding capacity, unleashing more reliable, traditional forms of energy, and utilizing the nation’s bountiful natural resources to unleash American energy.”
“Where possible, funding from these projects will be recompeted to address critical port upgrades and other core infrastructure needs of the United States,” DOT said.
This funding clawback is the latest in a series of moves from President Donald Trump to reverse course on federal support for offshore wind. Last month the U.S. Department of Commerce opened a probe into wind turbine imports, setting the stage for new tariffs, and it rescinded all “wind energy areas” the Biden administration had designated for future lease sales on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
Also last month, the Department of the Interior issued a stop work order to the 700-MW Revolution Wind project and said in court that it intends to revoke the approved construction and operations plan for US Wind’s 2.2 GW Maryland Offshore Wind project off the coast of Maryland and Delaware.
“Wasteful, wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in the department’s release. “Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg bent over backwards to use transportation dollars for their Green New Scam agenda while ignoring the dire needs of our shipbuilding industry.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y.; Gov. Maura Healey, D-Mass.; Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn.; Gov. Dan McKee, D-R.I.; and Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., issued a joint Labor Day statement in opposition to the president’s offshore wind policies, asking the administration to “uphold all offshore wind permits already granted and allow these projects to be constructed.”
“Efforts to walk back these commitments jeopardize hardworking families, wasting years of progress and ceding leadership to foreign competitors,” the governors wrote. “Canceling projects that have already been fully permitted — including some near completion — sends the worrisome message to investors that the work can be stopped on a whim, which could lead them to decide to either not finance different projects or impose higher interest rates that would ultimately place a bigger burden on taxpayers.”
