> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The world is embracing offshore wind power. Trump wants to smother the industry in the U.S. – no matter the costs. - URL: https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/the-world-is-embracing-offshore-wind-power-trump-wants-to-smother-the-industry-in-the-u-s-no-matter-the-costs/ - Published: 2026-08-20T17:09:21.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:21.000Z - Description: Governments around the world, including fossil fuel exporters, are adding offshore wind to their grids. Donald Trump wants to kill the industry in the U.S. despite the toll on workers, the grid, and the economy. - Author: Justin Gerdes - Tags: Commentary **Quitting Carbon* is a 100% subscriber-funded publication. To support my work, please consider* [*becoming a paid subscriber*](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/#/portal/signup)*,* [*making a one-time donation*](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/#/portal/support)*, or* [*gifting a paid subscription*](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/#/portal/gift)*.* Governments across the globe are turning to offshore wind to bolster their grids. Just this summer, Romania [identified offshore wind zones in the Black Sea](https://renewablesnow.com/news/romania-idetifies-offshore-wind-zones-for-11-5-gw-in-phases-1298706/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com) that could supply up to 11.5 gigawatts of power; the State of Victoria confirmed plans to [hold Australia’s first offshore wind auction](https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-first-offshore-wind-auction-is-going-ahead-as-planned-new-energy-minister-confirms/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com); Azerbaijan [designated an offshore wind development zone in the Caspian Sea](https://www.offshorewind.biz/2026/08/12/azerbaijan-designates-711-4-square-kilometre-area-in-caspian-sea-for-offshore-wind/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com); and Turkey announced plans to [hold its first offshore wind tender early next year](https://renewablesnow.com/news/turkey-to-hold-first-offshore-wind-tender-in-q1-2027-1299624/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com). This all followed moves by the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to [prepare to award seabed licenses](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/what-im-reading-offshore-wind-advances-in-canada-and-new-zealand-desertec-2-0-electrification-bills-advance-in-california-trumps-assault-on-energy-efficiency-and-more/#:~:text=Offshore%20wind%20advances%20in%20Canada%2C%20New%20Zealand) later this year to companies to develop offshore wind projects and by New Zealand lawmakers to [pass legislation](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/what-im-reading-offshore-wind-advances-in-canada-and-new-zealand-desertec-2-0-electrification-bills-advance-in-california-trumps-assault-on-energy-efficiency-and-more/#:~:text=Offshore%20wind%20advances%20in%20Canada%2C%20New%20Zealand) that will support offshore renewable energy projects, including offshore wind farms. In the U.S., meanwhile, Donald Trump’s Interior Department spent the summer [paying energy companies a combined $4 billion](https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/07/trump-administration-s-latest-buyback-of-offshore-wind-leases-brings-total-to-nearly-dollar4-billion/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com#:~:text=This%20latest%20agreement%20brings%20the%20total%20amount%20spent%20on%20such%20settlements%20to%20nearly%20%244%20billion.) *not* to build offshore wind projects. Administration officials are so eager to carry out Donald Trump’s vendetta against offshore wind that they keep devising new schemes to kill the industry in the U.S. – no matter the cost to workers, to the grid, or to the economy. **The toll on workers** “It’s the strangest thing: I’ve spent 15 or so years working in public-sector economic development; I’ve never seen people cheering for job destruction, particularly elected officials,” Tim Sullivan, formerly the CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, [told Inside Climate News’ Ajani Stella](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09082026/us-offshore-wind-disappears-leaving-workers-behind/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com). It *is* strange. Politicians typically aren’t so cavalier and unfeeling about the fate of a billion-dollar industry and the investment and jobs that come with it. Donald Trump owes workers like Gerard Mullin an apology for his callousness. First, Mullin’s work as a pile driver on the Empire Wind project offshore New York was disrupted by a stop-work order last April. Now, Trump’s government-wide campaign to kill the offshore wind industry threatens to take Mullin’s livelihood at sea with it, too. “All of a sudden, the federal government is concerned with my work, and there’s nothing I can do to change how they view it,” Mullin told Stella. “Now there are things completely outside of my control, changing how I make a living.” Federal judges eventually allowed Empire Wind, and four other U.S. East Coast offshore wind farms the Trump administration had tried to shutter, [to continue construction](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/what-im-reading-east-coast-offshore-wind-farms-nearing-completion-plug-in-solar-goes-nationwide-building-electrification-update-and-more/#:~:text=Developers%20race%20to%20finish%20East%20Coast%20offshore%20wind%20farms). But the workers who trained to build the projects, and the companies that invested billions to develop these and future projects, now face a crippling uncertainty. The Trump administration is systematically destroying the U.S.’ pipeline of projects. “Thousands of workers like Mullin who were promised steady, well-paying careers in offshore wind now find themselves racing to secure the few positions left or returning to their prior work. Meanwhile, the supply chain that emerged to support offshore development has been left adrift, including in towns in need of a promised economic boost,” writes Stella. 📖 ****Read more:** [****Backed by the law and voters, the offshore wind industry must go on offense to secure its future**](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/backed-by-the-law-and-voters-the-offshore-wind-industry-must-go-on-offense-to-secure-its-future/) **Offshore wind bolsters the grid** As confounding as intentionally killing family-supporting jobs is the Trump administration’s determination to stop all new U.S. offshore wind projects even as the projects already built are delivering critical power to the grid when it is needed most. The U.S.’ first utility-scale offshore wind farm, [South Fork Wind](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/trump-claims-offshore-wind-is-worthless-this-project-proves-the-opposite-is-true/), has already demonstrated its ability to deliver reliable power around the clock during winter cold snaps *and* summer heat waves. Last month, the turbines at South Fork Wind kept spinning during a brutal hot spell that strained New York’s grid. “From July 1-4, South Fork Wind delivered nearly 10 gigawatt-hours of locally produced power to Long Island’s grid. Over those four days, and as demand for electricity climbed with the heat, the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm achieved a 74.7% capacity factor – including nearly 90% on July 2,” Mikkel Maehlisen, Ørsted’s VP Generation, America, [wrote recently on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7481294773866143744/?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com). “The potential costs and benefits of offshore wind have been debated for decades,” Fara Courtney, principal consultant with Massachusetts-based Outer Harbor Consulting, [told Canary Media’s Maria Gallucci last month](https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/offshore-wind/offshore-wind-new-england-heat?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com). “Now we have the first projects up and producing, \[and\] the data is clear: Offshore wind is a new American energy sector with a big role to play in meeting this region’s skyrocketing energy demand.” 📖 ****Read more:** [****Trump claims offshore wind is worthless. This project proves the opposite is true.**](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/trump-claims-offshore-wind-is-worthless-this-project-proves-the-opposite-is-true/) **Offshore wind and the energy transition** If fellow fossil fuel-exporting countries like Australia, Azerbaijan, and Canada have decided that offshore wind belongs on their grids, you would think the Trump administration could get there, too. But officials who know better – like Energy Secretary [Chris Wright](https://www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/why-does-chris-wright-insist-on-being-so-wrong-on-the-energy-transition/) and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum – are more concerned with appeasing Trump’s anti-wind power fixation than in doing what’s best for the country. Trump [says](https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3ms75etulfk2w?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com), “Any country with windmills is a loser.” He claims that China only sells wind turbines but doesn’t use them. “All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? They are not able to find any. They don’t have windmills. I have told my people, we will not approve windmills,” Trump recently [said to reporters](https://bsky.app/profile/bluebirdnews.bsky.social/post/3mrd6fjlj6c2v?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com). No matter that in the real world China is the runaway global leader in installed [onshore](https://www.gwec.net/news/global-wind-installations-rise-record-40-as-industry-charts-way-out-of-energy-crisis?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com) and [offshore wind](https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-wind-power-tracker?ref=quittingcarbonmedia.com) power capacity. China, Denmark, Germany, the UK, and other countries that commercialized offshore wind power are still installing turbines off their coastlines. As the activity by newcomers this summer attests, more countries are eager to join their ranks. In the U.S., the world's most powerful man is blocking the offshore wind industry's future. Hopefully the industry can outlast him.