Trump Plans to Block Iberdrola Massachusetts Wind Projects (3)

The Trump administration is moving to block the development of more offshore wind projects, the latest in a series of high-profile setbacks for an industry that’s caught the president’s ire.

The US is working to withdraw a permit for the New England Wind 1 and 2 offshore wind projects in Massachusetts, according to a court filing dated Wednesday. BloombergNEF estimates the total project’s valuation at $14.6 billion.

The Trump administration’s move to block the venture extends an unprecedented attack on the nascent offshore wind industry, which threatens multi-billion dollar projects and hundreds of jobs. So far, stop-work orders and yanked permits — as well as the threats of them — have disrupted plans for at least four wind projects off the US East Coast this year.

The country’s offshore wind industry is unusually exposed to political risk, with projects planned in federal waters controlled by the president and his executive branch.

“It is extremely rare for fully permitted and contracted energy projects anywhere in the world to be forced to halt construction once underway, highlighting the extraordinary nature of the current crackdown in the US,” said Atin Jain, an analyst for BloombergNEF.

About 8 gigawatts of power capacity — or the equivalent of eight nuclear reactors — have been threatened or blocked by the Trump administration. That’s more than half of the 14 gigawatts of offshore wind projects approved by the Biden administration.

Iberdrola SA’s subsidiary Avangrid Inc. is developing New England Wind 1 and 2, a project southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts, that aims to supply enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 900,000 homes in the state, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said.

Shares of Iberdrola fell as much as 1.7%. Other developers also declined. Orsted A/S dropped as much as 2.6%, and Vestas Wind Systems A/S slipped as much as 1.3%.

Iberdrola declined to comment on the move.

Many offshore wind farm developers had moved forward with projects after receiving permits under former President Joe Biden, despite being squeezed for years with high interest rates and supply chain issues. Trump’s special contempt for offshore wind, however, has imperiled those investments, with projects that are even 80% finished being forced to halt construction.

Five US offshore wind projects that are being built “representing about $28 billion of committed capital face severe delays and even cancellation,” Jain wrote in a BNEF research note Wednesday.

Read More: Trump to Review Approval of Massachusetts Offshore Wind Farm

Turbine construction near Nantucket gained national attention last summer after a blade from an abutting wind farm splintered and sent shards of glass and foam across the island’s much-lauded southern beaches. The island community ultimately settled with blade manufacturer GE Vernova Inc. a year later, securing $10.5 million to compensate local businesses for cleanup costs, forgone rental income and other losses.

From BI: Iberdrola’s US-Offshore Blip Won’t Derail Growth Pipeline: React

The administration has also halted construction of a near-complete project south of Rhode Island led by Orsted SA. In April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum froze Equinor ASA’s $5 billion Empire Wind farm off the coast of Long Island, later lifting the order after striking a deal with Governor Kathy Hochul to allow a new natural gas pipeline.

(Updates with cost estimate in second paragraph)

--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Ari Natter, Esha Dey, Rodrigo Orihuela and Jennah Haque.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Cameron Baker in Boston at cbaker225@bloomberg.net;
Mark Chediak in San Francisco at mchediak@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Brian Eckhouse at beckhouse@bloomberg.net;
Zachary Fleming at zfleming2@bloomberg.net

Millie Munshi

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