After a dozen days in limbo, state and federal officials keep ramping up the pressure on the Trump administration to let the Revolution Wind project resume. The offshore wind project already under construction south of Rhode Island was put on hold on Aug. 22, leaving workers in the lurch and risking critical energy reliability and climate change mandates.
In a Wednesday letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Gov. Dan McKee outlined the consequences of the stop-work order, while asking for a meeting with President Donald Trump.
“The stop-work order undermines efforts to expand our energy supply, lower costs for families and businesses, and strengthen regional reliability,” McKee wrote to Burgum. “This action puts hundreds of well-paid blue-collar jobs at risk by halting a project that is just steps away from powering more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.”
More than 1,000 union workers have spent much of the last two years building the 65-turbine project, 45 of which have been installed, as well as a pair of substations that will connect the power supply to Rhode Island and Connecticut. The 704 megawatts of nameplate capacity was set to be delivered by mid-2026, and already baked into the long-term plans for meeting Rhode Island’s decarbonization mandates under the state’s 2021 Act on Climate law. It is also critical to regional electrical grid reliability, especially in extreme weather events where fuel supply might be limited.
Since the project was put on hold, the hits have continued, with the U.S. Department of Transportation pulling $679 million in federal infrastructure grants tied to offshore wind projects on Aug. 29, including $11.2 million for Quonset Point. Meanwhile, a separate offshore wind project Rhode Island is eyeing for additional renewable electricity, SouthCoast Wind, is facing new setbacks after federal administrators indicated in federal court filings that they want to yank already approved permits for the Massachusetts project.
McKee first spoke with Burgum on Aug. 29, with a virtual meeting among staff members for both officials earlier Wednesday, Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee’s office, said in an email.
His request for a meeting with Trump comes a day before a federal court hearing in Massachusetts, where a group of 18 state attorneys general, including Rhode Island’s Peter Neronha, are seeking to bar the Trump administration from blocking offshore wind projects more broadly. When the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in May, the Revolution Wind project did not appear in jeopardy, having already secured all of its federal and state approvals and been under construction for 18 months. Trump’s initial executive orders regarding offshore wind appeared to only affect projects still in need of federal approvals.
But that same executive order was invoked by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in its Aug. 22 letter, ordering Danish developer Orsted to stop work on the Revolution Wind project due to national security concerns, along with environmental risks. The order left a dozen millwrights temporarily idled aboard the Wind Scylla in Rhode Island Sound, where they were working on the construction of turbines.
Millwrights return to shore
The turbine installation vessel has since returned to shore in New London, but the workers are still on board, waiting to hear if they can head back out before their four-week shift ends on Sept. 10, said Andy Benedetto, president of the Millwrights Local 1121.
“They’re just staying on the boat so they’re ready,” Benedetto said in an interview Wednesday. “This was unplanned.”
Benedetto lamented the waste of training and jobs for local workers. Among the dozen laborers aboard the docked installation vessel is a mother-son apprentice duo, whose family depends on their incomes from the continued work, Benedetto said.
“These people are people, and it’s jobs and they were excited about this work continuing,” Benedetto said. “They had work lined up for the next couple years basically and it’s being taken away from them.”
In addition to an estimated 1,200 direct construction jobs, the project was projected to create “dozens” of long-term maintenance and operation positions filled by local union workers, according to Orsted.
Another two dozen laborers with other local unions were set to head to sea for a rotation beginning Aug. 28, but were still waiting for the call on land as of Wednesday night, said Erica Hammond, legislative director for the Rhode Island AFL-CIO. At least three of the workers have already taken new jobs on other projects rather than keep waiting, Hammond said. If their offshore shifts get delayed much longer, they may have to file for unemployment, depending on terms of individual contracts.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island and Nikki Budzinksi of Illinois, who co-lead the Congressional Labor Caucus’ Building Trades Task Force, called on Burgum to lift the stop-work order in a joint statement Tuesday.
“Along with other clean energy projects the Administration has halted, this is yet another attack on construction workers. Secretary Burgum needs to lift the order and allow these hardworking men and women back to finish the job, provide for their families, and help achieve American energy independence,” they said.
Orsted has also pledged to explore solutions to resume work, including potential litigation, while exploring the financial implications for its $4 billion project. The company is seeking to raise another $9.4 billion from its shareholders, with an “extraordinary general meeting” Friday to secure board approval for its share sale.
Neronha’s office is also considering additional legal action, but had not filed anything as of Wednesday. He’s focused on the existing multistate lawsuit challenging federal actions on offshore wind, scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. court hearing Thursday in Boston before U.S. District Judge William Young.
This story has been updated to include additional information regarding setbacks faced by SouthCoast Wind and local laborers waiting to go out to sea.
