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Trump’s decision to halt new permits for offshore wind and pause construction of New York’s Empire Wind project puts thousands of local jobs at risk and jeopardizes the promise of a $12 billion economic boost to the state.
The Empire State is standing up to President Donald Trump’s attacks on the development of offshore wind farms.
“New York is not backing down without a fight,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week after Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit to stop an executive order that suspended new leasing and permitting for wind projects.
And it may not be the only legal challenge on the horizon.
Offshore wind developer Equinor is also considering suing the Trump administration after the president halted work in mid-April on its New York based wind farm, Empire Wind 1. Although it took 14 years to secure federal approvals for the venture, the administration claimed the process had been “rushed” and all work needed to stop on site until “further review is completed.”
Trump, who received record donations from fossil fuel industry groups on the campaign trail, has pitted himself against the generation of non-polluting electricity through renewable sources like wind and promised to drill for more oil and gas instead.
But offshore wind advocates in New York challenge the president’s claims that he is ushering in a “golden age” of economic prosperity. Halting wind projects is actually bad for the economy and threatens local jobs, they say.
If New York makes the five offshore wind solicitations it has in the pipeline a reality, it would generate a “combined economic impact of more than $12.1 billion” across the state, according to state authorities. And it would “support more than 6,800 jobs” with “average salaries of approximately $100,000 per year.”
On the local level, New York City’s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, an industrial port in Sunset Park, was slated to become an operational and maintenance hub for Empire Wind and other offshore ventures. These plans are part of a larger push to transform the industrial zone, which has long been overlooked for economic investment, into what the city calls “a prime destination for environmentally sustainable industry.”
“The Trump Administration’s stop-work order on the Empire Wind 1 project—and offshore wind generally—is a devastating hit to South Brooklyn’s economy as well as the nation’s,” said New York Congressman Dan Goldman in an email.
The project was set to result in $195 million in income for New Yorkers. On the state level, it would inject $1.6 billion into New York’s economy during the planning and construction phases of the project, the developer Equinor notes.
“By halting this fully permitted, fully financed, American-made project, President Trump not only hurts working families in Brooklyn, he stalls a major opportunity for long-term economic growth in our region,” Goldman added.
Local jobs in limbo
When Christopher Erikson, business manager for Local Union No. 3, which represents employees at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT), heard that a stop work order was issued on Empire Wind, he was sorely disappointed.
Construction on the SBMT, which has already employed over 1,500 people and sought to power half a million New York homes with clean energy, was more than 50 percent complete.
“We were anticipating this work opportunity for such a long time and to see it almost come to fruition, only to have the rug pulled out from under us, was disappointing to say the least,” Erikson told City Limits.
The facility was on its way to becoming an assembly and maintenance hub for turbines that would be later ferried out and installed at sea to capture wind and generate electricity.
“But we live to fight another day,” Erickson said, pointing out that while Equinor has halted work offshore to comply with the stop-work order, it continues construction on building out the SBMT facility on land.
The decision to pause offshore construction was given after Trump’s Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum instructed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is responsible for issuing the permits, to “cease all construction activities” on the project. Burgum claimed on social media site X that he had received information “that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
While BOEM didn’t comment on the stop-order, it stated in a letter that Empire Wind may not “resume activities” until the agency has completed its “necessary review” of the approved permits.
But Equinor’s Empire Wind, which Gov. Hochul described as a “fully federally permitted” venture, reportedly underwent a 14-year permitting process. The federal review for setting up in the New York area began in 2011. Equinor then obtained its first lease for the project in 2017 during Trump’s first presidency, and its final federal approval in 2024.
In the end, pausing a project that has been over a decade in the making will have direct implications for workers and the surrounding community relying on the future cash flow.
Equinor signed a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the construction of SBMT that guaranteed “over 1,000 union construction jobs and apprenticeships in local New York communities,” the developer said in a press release.
The agreement prioritizes hiring union members from the Sunset Park community, and secondarily, union members from New York City.
It also “includes a local hire requirement that gives priority to union members who are Section 3 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents, veterans, and those who live in Sunset Park,” Equinor noted.
Bad for business
Not only were locals counting on job opportunities, but Equinor says about 100 current employees who were responsible for setting up the wind farm’s structure in the sea bed off shore had to stop working immediately and can’t count on a future paycheck.
“This really does affect people’s lives,” said Esther Rosario, executive director of the labor union coalition Climate Jobs NY.
“We can debate science or even the climate crisis but saying no to a project like this that is already underway is just bad for business,” she said.
And construction at the SBMT isn’t the only part of the industry potentially taking a hit.
A federal grant awarded to the Educational and Cultural Trust Fund administered by Local Union No. 3 last September to build an onshore and offshore wind safety training facility in upstate Walden, NY, may now be at risk too.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration, which issued the grant, told staff at Local Union No. 3—who spoke to City Limits on condition of anonymity—that the decision to give them the money was “sent to Washington for further review.”
The facility would have made it more cost-effective for projects in the northeast to guarantee the Global Wind Organization certificate that employees need to work on a wind farm. Experts say there are only a handful of facilities in the U.S that issue the certificate, which needs to be renewed every two years, forcing employees to travel long distances and spend more to secure the training.
The bottom line, members of the environmental community say, is that Trump’s interference in the offshore wind industry could scare off future investors and cost the country money on other business transactions.
“This is essentially the government assuming control of privately owned assets. It is the worst thing a leader can do for broader investment or foreign direct investment,” said Vanessa Fajans-Turner, executive director of Environmental Advocates New York.
“It sends out the message to other companies that there is a strong chance that even if they have all of the legal permissions they need on a project, [the government] can still block their ability to follow through and make good on their investments,” she added.
To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Mariana@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact [email protected]
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