Despite President Donald Trump’s assertions that renewable energy—in particular wind power—is a “con job,” “ruining the oceans,” and “driving the whales crazy,” a federal judge ruled on Feb. 2 that an offshore wind project aimed at powering 600,000 New York homes can resume construction.
The judgment marks the fifth such project to be put back on track after the White House halted them in December and marks another blow to the war on renewable energy that kicked into high gear when the president retook office last year.
During his 2025 inaugural address, Trump said he would declare a “national energy emergency” as one of his first acts. “We will drill, baby, drill,” he asserted, claiming that the U.S. would be a “rich nation again” and that the “liquid gold,” referring to oil and other fossil fuels, would “help us do it.” This energy emergency did not include solar, wind, or stored power in the definition of “energy” or “energy resources.”
That same day, Trump issued an executive order titled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.” What that long name meant in practice was a temporary halt to all onshore and offshore wind project permitting.
It was followed by another executive order on Feb. 14, 2025, “Establishing Energy Dominance Council,” which excluded solar and wind energy from the list of what Trump called “our amazing national assets.”
The decrees set the tone for the administration’s approach when it comes to renewable energy. In the months that followed, a number of maneuvers by Trump demonstrated what many environmental advocates saw as the creation of a hostile narrative toward solar, wind, and stored power.
That hostility has not only affected building projects but also consumers, as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the elimination of the $7 billion Solar for All program, which aimed to lower energy bills for people across the country.
In October, the Energy Department halted an estimated $7.5 billion in funding for 223 clean energy projects. At that time, White House budget director Russell T. Vought, who announced the cuts on social media, claimed that “nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being canceled.”
Weeks before the new year, the Trump administration suspended the leases of five large-scale East Coast offshore wind projects, claiming a national security risk related to them had been identified by the Pentagon.
Sunrise Wind was one of those projects, along with the Vineyard Wind project in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and Empire Wind, also in New York.
In the latest court hearing, Judge Royce Lamberth said Sunrise Wind was allowed to proceed, stating that the government had not shown that offshore wind is such an imminent national security risk that its development must come to a halt in the United States.
In a series of court rulings issued since early January, with Sunrise Wind being the latest, all five projects have been permitted to resume operations.
The Trump administration’s interference in renewable energy progress has been derided by many advocacy groups, who say that the push toward renewable energy is necessary in a world facing growing climate risk.
Turn Forward, an independent, nonprofit organization advocating for wind power, issued a statement after the ruling saying:
“Taken together, these five offshore wind projects represent nearly six gigawatts of new electricity now under construction along the East Coast, enough power to serve 2.5 million American homes and businesses. At a time when electricity demand is rising rapidly, and grid reliability is under increasing strain, these projects represent critically needed utility-scale power sources that are making progress toward completion.”
The group went on to assert that it was time to “move past litigation-driven uncertainty” and let the projects do what they were approved to do. Citing the fact that offshore wind is not only good for the environment but for workers as well, Turn Forward noted that it “strengthens American energy security, supports domestic manufacturing and construction jobs, and delivers reliable power where it is needed most. We need to leverage this resource, not hold it back.”
Trump has made a number of claims about wind and solar energy, including that they endanger national security, kill masses of birds, and drive the whales “crazy.” He’s declared them to be overly expensive forms of energy that do not work.
Months ago, on his social media site, Truth Social, the president claimed (without citing any sources) that “Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS. THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” He then went on to state that, “We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!! MAGA.”
Yet detractors argue that the president’s claims lack evidence or are just downright inaccurate. For example, the claim that solar and wind power are more expensive than fossil fuels is refuted by recent analysis finding the opposite to be true. Others note that Trump’s push to prioritize fossil fuel industries such as coal and oil will leave humanity on the hook to pay a dangerous price.
In an article titled “Scientists’ Warning on Fossil Fuels,” published in Oxford Open Climate Change, analysts explained that “the fossil-fueled climate crisis is cutting lives short, imperiling ecosystems, costing global economies hundreds of billions of dollars in damages annually, and threatening national security and a livable future. Action to speed the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy could not be more urgent.”
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board (SASB), which sets the Doomsday Clock that provides the public with an easy-to-understand measurement of manmade threats to human existence and the planet, also cited the Trump administration’s “aggressive” pushback on renewable energy as a cause for alarm. The board called on Congress to “repudiate President Trump’s war on renewable energy.”
It is not clear at this time whether the Trump administration intends to appeal Judge Lamberth’s decision.
During the Feb. 5 National Prayer Breakfast, the president seemed to double down on his stance against renewable energy and on prioritizing coal and oil. He pushed for the need to pair the words “clean” and “beautiful” with talk of coal, and for others to see that wind energy is a “quick way of losing money.”
“You’re losing your fields, killing your birds,” Trump said, “and it doesn’t work,” in reference to wind energy. He went on to make the claim—again, with no sources—that renewable energy and immigration are “destroying” Europe.
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