Trump’s offshore wind war shakes investors

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Sep 12, 2025

Trump's administration launched a controversial campaign against offshore wind projects, freezing major investments like Ørsted’s Revolution Wind. This political maneuver raises alarms in the clean energy sector, disrupting financing and job growth amidst a backdrop of layoffs and bankruptcies. While there's a contrasting projection of job creation by 2030, the resilience of the nuclear industry also comes under scrutiny, as experts question whether AI advancements can address its inherent economic issues. The conversation dives into the complex interplay of politics, investment, and the future of renewable energy.

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INSIGHT

Local Office Uncertainty Chokes Development

Routine local approvals are becoming inconsistent as offices wait for federal direction, creating development paralysis.
That uncertainty raises development capital risk and will increase the cost of capital across projects.

INSIGHT

Utilities Caught Between Politics And Reliability

Utilities fear being blamed for rate increases caused by halted projects and are politically vulnerable.
Utilities will struggle to replace lost clean resources quickly, creating grid reliability stress.

ADVICE

Plan For A Delayed Offshore Wind Recovery

Expect offshore wind to pause and restructure rather than disappear entirely; time horizons may shift to 2030–2031 for resurgence.
Plan for a slower build-out and protect supply chain investments during the downturn.

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On his first day in office, Trump laid out his wind policy in one simple sentence: “We aren’t going to do the wind thing.”

With stop-work orders, red tape, and wild claims about whale-killing electromagnetic fields, the White House has stepped up its war on wind.

The flashpoint is Ørsted’s $5 billion Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island, which was weeks from delivering 700 megawatts of clean power to New England, and now frozen by federal order. The threat against the project is more than a local fight: it signals that even fully permitted, nearly finished clean energy assets can be derailed for political leverage.

Analysts warn that this is sending shock waves through the entire energy sector, raising the cost of capital for everything from solar farms to advanced nuclear.

In this week’s Open Circuit, we unpack the wider impacts. What does it mean when federal approvals don’t hold? And can states, governors, and utilities step in to keep projects alive when Washington is trying to kill them?

Plus, we look at the split story for clean energy jobs. We’ve seen a fresh round of layoffs, bankruptcies and canceled projects, even as the government projects tens of thousands of new renewable and battery jobs by 2030. What is the long-term picture for employment?

We’ll end with a look at Amory Lovins’ new piece on nuclear, where he argues the AI boom won’t rescue reactors from their economic flaws. Is the current demand picture enough to revitalize the U.S. nuclear industry?

With resilience now a leading driver of grid investments, Latitude Media and The Ad Hoc Group are hosting the Power Resilience Forum in Houston, Texas on January 21-23, 2026 . Utilities, regulators, innovators, and investors will all be in the room — talking about how to keep the grid running in this new era of heatwaves, wildfires, and storms.

Want your clean energy brand to stand out in a crowded market? Work with Latitude Studios, our in-house agency that provides content creation and marketing services for brands at the frontier of the energy transition.

Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and Katherine Hamilton. Produced and edited by Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand.