A week after Gov. Dan McKee asked to meet with President Donald Trump over the administration’s halt to the Revolution Wind project, he’s still waiting for an answer.
But U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is suggesting the paused project might not be dead in the water after all. In an interview on CNBC Wednesday, Burgum, whose office oversees federal permits for offshore wind projects, indicated the administration was open to letting work resume on the 65-turbine project.
Burgum said in the interview that the administration was “under discussions,” with McKee and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and with project developers. Rhode Island and Connecticut were under agreements to buy power from the project after it became operational next year.
“We’re also finishing the reviews that we’ve been asked and required to make through the executive orders,” Burgum said.
The Aug. 22 letter from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to Danish wind developer Orsted A/S, ordering construction to cease on Revolution Wind, cited Trump’s Jan. 20 memo which put an indefinite pause on federal approvals for offshore wind projects.
“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas,” Matthew Giacona, BOEM acting director, wrote in the letter to Orsted.
The move prompted immediate and mounting backlash by state and federal officials over the economic and environmental consequences of the stop work order, which halted a project already 80% complete.
McKee reiterated the risks to thousands of labor union jobs, state climate change mandates and grid reliability in his Sept. 3 letter to Burgum, in which he asked to meet with Trump. No meeting has been held or scheduled as of Wednesday, said Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee’s office. However, McKee and Burgum have exchanged text messages, DaRocha said.
A day after McKee called for a one-on-one with the White House came a pair of lawsuits, filed by Rhode Island and Connecticut attorneys general and by the project developers, respectively. The complaints — one filed in Rhode Island and the other in D.C. — both seek court intervention to reverse the stop work order on Revolution Wind, arguing it violates constitutional separation of powers protections. The federal administration has not yet responded to either complaint, according to public court dockets.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha in an interview Wednesday said he believes the federal courts are the only way to revive Revolution Wind.
“This president is not turning wind back online willingly,” Neronha said.
Indeed, Burgum lambasted the offshore wind industry overall, calling the projects “a literal train wreck in terms of their economics,” in his CNBC interview.
Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Interior, declined to offer additional comment when contacted Wednesday afternoon.
Orsted and its development partner have already invested or committed $5 billion into the project off Block Island, and expect to face another $1 billion in “breakaway costs” if the project is canceled, according to its court complaint.
Meanwhile, regional ratepayers across New England could face a $500 million annual increase in supply prices starting in 2028 without the project, according to Connecticut energy officials. Specific bill impacts in Rhode Island have not been determined, though the fixed price by which Rhode Island Energy will purchase power from the wind project is more than 33% lower than the winter electric rate the company proposed for the six-month period beginning Oct. 1.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
