President Donald Trump's long-running hostility toward offshore wind has translated into policy that is rapidly dismantling the nascent U.S. industry, leaving thousands of skilled tradespeople scrambling for work.
Since returning to office, Trump has halted future offshore wind permitting and canceled 12 offshore wind leases, and the impact on projected capacity has already been severe, reported Climate Desk.
At the time of his election, the U.S. was on track to build 39 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 — enough to power 13 million homes – but by the end of his first year back in office, that estimate had been slashed to just 6 gigawatts, according to market research firm BloombergNEF.
For workers like pile driver Gerard Mullin, the shift has been personal and abrupt. Mullin had his bags packed for a five-week offshore stint with New York's Empire Wind project when Trump's stop-work order stranded him at home. He's since returned to onshore construction work he'd left behind years earlier. Others, like ironworker Anthony Hibbard, now earn a fraction of their former offshore pay — Hibbard says he makes about one-fifth what he did working on Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.
The White House defends the reversal as an economic win. Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Trump has "delivered on his popular promise to reverse the Left's costly Green New Scam," crediting the administration with "creating thousands of good-paying energy jobs across the country."
But economic development officials who've watched the industry unravel say they're baffled. "I've spent 15 or so years working in public-sector economic development [and] I've never seen people cheering for job destruction, particularly elected officials," said Tim Sullivan, former CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
Unions and states poured millions into training programs — costing $10,000 to $30,000 per worker — built on promises of a decade or more of steady employment. Massachusetts lost a $34 million grant for an offshore wind terminal in Salem, costing roughly 800 construction jobs, while New Jersey's Salem County saw plans for 1,500 new jobs evaporate. Manufacturers like Italy's Prysmian Group have abandoned planned U.S. facilities altogether.
"We've trained them, we've given them this great experience, they're building their futures for their families, and now they have no projects to work on," said Kris Ohleth of the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, attributing the collapse to the "lack of market confidence" created by the administration's reversals.
