Trump spurns offshore wind tradeoff on permitting reform
Interior secretary Burgum rejected any easing of the president’s war on sector despite efforts to woo Democrats to streamline energy regulations
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has dashed hope the Trump administration might dial back its war on offshore wind to woo Democrats for another stab at permitting reform.
President Donald Trump has made reform of the cumbersome federal regulatory process a signature issue - along with destroying the emergent offshore wind industry.
Offshore wind under development in primarily Democrat-led states in the Northeast has faced an array of attacks by Trump and his cabinet-level agencies, including approved projects stripped of permits, further regulatory processes halted, and even late-stage construction hit with stop-work orders.
When asked if he would consider backing off attacks on offshore wind in exchange for Democratic support for permitting reform, Burgum said: “I hadn’t thought about the idea of trading something that makes sense for everybody in America for something that makes no sense”
Burgum chairs Trump's National Energy Dominance Council established to enhance US energy production and security.
As head of the Department of Interior (DoI), he overseas coastal energy development through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
At API, the key lobbying group for the oil & gas sector, he recited a litany of misinformation about offshore wind, including that it endangers whales and is too costly to develop without major tax breaks in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Those tax credits have been largely phased out by Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by Trump 4 July.
Burgum’s intransigence could derail bipartisan support for permitting reform to kickstart energy development.
Surging demand
After decades of largely flat growth, the nation is amid a generational surge in power demand.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistics arm of the Department of Energy, forecast electricity demand rising more than 2% annually through decade as buildout of data centres for artificial intelligence sweeps the nation.
To speed up deployment of new capacity, it is pushing reform of the federal permitting process, an effort with generally broad bipartisan support.
The president’s attacks on offshore wind have soured Democrats’ on working with the administration, however.
Despite Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, three fifths of the Senate – or 60 votes – are needed to move a bill out of committee, seven more than their 53-member majority.