US pauses leases for five offshore wind projects, cites national security risk

Washington DC [US], December 23 : The United States Department of the Interior announced that it is pausing the leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports, the Department said in a statement.

The statement said that this pause will give the Department, along with the Department of War and other relevant government agencies, time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.

"The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people," said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. "Today's action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centres. The Trump administration will always prioritise the security of the American people."

The US has paused the leases for Vineyard Wind 1 (OCS-A 0501), Revolution Wind (OCS-A 0486), CVOW - Commercial (OCS-A 0483), Sunrise Wind (OCS-A 0487) and Empire Wind 1 (OCS-A 0512).

"As for the national security risks inherent to large-scale offshore wind projects, unclassified reports from the US government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called 'clutter'. The clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects," the Department of the Interior said.

The Department of Energy, in a 2024 report, stated that a radar's threshold for false alarm detection can be increased to reduce some clutter, but an increased detection threshold could cause the radar to "miss actual targets."

Defending the move on X, Doug Burgum termed offshore wind as an "expensive, unreliable, subsidy-dependent scheme."

He wrote, "Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, subsidy-dependent schemes ever pushed upon American taxpayers. Here's why @POTUS is prioritising energy projects like clean, beautiful coal & US natural gas that actually work."

"Offshore wind forces consumers and taxpayers to pay CONSIDERABLY more for electricity than proven sources. The prices from the five paused offshore wind projects are, on average, 75 per cent higher than already-high grid prices on the East Coast," the Secretary added.

He added that offshore wind is costlier than natural gas.

"Even more stark is the cost of electricity produced by offshore wind versus natural gas: in New England, offshore wind is the most expensive source of energy, being nearly 12x more than natural gas," Burgum wrote on X.

Interestingly, US President Donald Trump, in September 2025, had launched a sharp critique of climate science during his address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), terming climate change the "greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world" and criticising what he called a growing dependence on renewable energy sources. He asserted that the concept of a carbon footprint was a hoax and accused unnamed groups of having "evil intentions" in pushing environmental agendas.

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