- In a letter to Secretary of the Interior Burgum, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) is bringing attention to defiant plans of wind turbine developer Equinor to begin construction on an offshore wind project off the coast of New Jersey and New York despite President Trump’s January 20th executive order which paused new approvals for offshore wind farms until the Trump Administration can perform greater scrutiny.

“Equinor, a Norwegian multinational energy company, announced its intent to begin subsea rock installation within the Empire Wind 1 Lease area as soon as this April,” Smith said. “This announcement comes despite President Trump’s order which specifically references the need to examine shortcomings in the approval process for offshore wind, including potential inadequacies in various environmental reviews.”

“It’s an alarming development that flies in the face of the comprehensive review of offshore wind ordered by President Trump in his January 20th executive order. The Norwegian company’s intention here is clear,” Smith added, “it is trying to push through its questionable project based on the rubber-stamp approval received from the Biden Administration.”

Smith said that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process under the Biden Administration, when Empire Wind was approved, was “completely inadequate” and failed to answer critical questions related to national security, environmental health, and the economic wellbeing of nearby communities. The results, he said, could be “catastrophic,” disrupting some of the nation’s busiest waters and negatively affecting important radar systems.

Smith noted that BOEM has never supplied a compelling argument for mitigation on a slew of problems offshore wind is expected to create in the Northeast region.

For years, Smith has been pointing out the lack of serious scrutiny and proper environmental vetting, as well as the legal deficiency of these projects, fighting to secure answers from the Biden Administration. Last Congress, Smith wrote legislation—which was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2023—that would require presidential certification that offshore wind projects would not “weaken, degrade, interfere with, or nullify the capability of radar relied upon by the Federal Aviation Administration or the Armed Forces.”

Early this year, Smith applauded President Trump’s executive order on offshore wind and will continue to work to hold offshore wind developers accountable and ensure the whitewash of industrializing our oceans can no longer continue.

The most recent version of this release may be viewed at:

https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413597

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