The signing of contracts for two new Massachusetts offshore wind farms, previously set for this week, has been postponed until after the presidential inauguration.
The power-purchase agreements between three Massachusetts utilities and the developers of New England Wind 1 and SouthCoast Wind were due to be signed Wednesday.
The parties now say they expect to reach an agreement by March 31, more than two months after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to halt offshore wind.
One of the utilities, National Grid, sent a letter to the Healey administration saying the developers, Avangrid and Ocean Winds, “have not yet completed their contract negotiations.”
The letter did not give a reason for the delay, but the developers will now have the opportunity to see what Trump might do, in the early days of his administration, before they sign the contracts.
Last week, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, said Trump had asked him to draft an executive order on offshore wind.
In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Van Drew said he drafted an order that would halt offshore wind activity for six months, to allow time for a federal review of the industry.
But Trump’s nominee for Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, during a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, seemed to open the door for certain offshore wind projects to move forward.
When asked by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) if the Interior Department would allow wind projects that are already underway to continue, Burgum said he is not familiar with all of the projects now underway, but he anticipates that they would continue, “if they make sense and they’re already in law.”
What would qualify as “in law,” and whether those wind farms would be included in any temporary moratorium, was not clear.
Both New England Wind 1 and SouthCoast Wind have already received full approval from the Department of the Interior.
This story was originally published by CAI. It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
