Revolution Wind, the massive offshore wind farm under construction off the Rhode Island coast, appears to be dead in the water for now.
Citing unspecified security concerns, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued an immediate stop-work order Friday.
Now, Rhode Island lawmakers are pushing back, insisting that mothballing the project would cost thousands of jobs and cause irreparable damage to the state’s climate goals.
“You cannot just walk away from a project that is 80% complete, that’s going to deliver electricity to 350,000 homes at a competitive rate,” said Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee at a press conference on Monday.
McKee and other top Rhode Island lawmakers are vowing to do everything possible to try and save the project.
“This project must go on!” said Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI).
His colleague in the House, Rep. Seth Magaziner, agreed.
“By stopping the Revolution Wind project, Donald Trump is putting America last,” Magaziner said.
The abrupt stop-work order came as a surprise to the Danish energy company Orsted, which says 45 of the 65 wind turbines are fully-installed and nearly ready to begin operation.
Company officials say they will comply with the federal order, hoping that state officials can convince the Trump Administration to reverse course.
But they may just be tilting at windmills.
President Trump is no fan of wind farms. The President has railed against wind farms near his golf courses in Scotland, calling them an eyesore and a false promise.
“It is the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy, but windmills should not be allowed,” Trump said in July.
Rhode Island lawmakers take a different view. To them, projects like Revolution Wind are central to the state’s climate strategy. They’d like to see the state transition away from fossil fuels and become fully carbon neutral by 2050.
In that context, Democratic lawmakers here plan to make a full-court press to convince President Trump to reverse course.
“It’s a reckless decision by the President,” U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said on Monday. “This project will lower energy costs. It’s employing thousands of people. So I guess his motivation is: raise prices and fire people.”
“A thousand good-paying union jobs,” clarified Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO. “These are jobs that are not only going to build this project, but that are also going to build a clean energy future for Rhode Island.”
Union carpenter Tony Voss is one of the people directly affected. He has found steady work at Revolution Wind over the past few years, and was preparing to head out to the job site again when the order to halt construction came in.
“I was ready to go out on Thursday, my bags are ready to go and now it’s uncertain,” he said.
It’s unclear how much leverage the state may have in trying to rescue the project. And officials are not ruling out taking legal action.
For his part, Gov. McKee said his task now is to work with allies in Connecticut and New York to put as much pressure as possible on the White House.
“I want President Trump to know that it’s an attack, a direct hit, on our jobs, on our economy, and on our families that struggle to pay their utility bills,” McKee said. “I think that message is important and we’re going to deliver it.”
