WASHINGTON, D.C. — A sudden federal intervention has thrown the future of America’s offshore wind buildout into uncertainty, after national security officials raised alarms about risks lurking just offshore.
The Department of the Interior announced it has halted all active leases for large-scale offshore wind projects currently under construction, citing classified national security assessments produced by the Department of War. The pause takes effect immediately and applies to several of the most prominent wind developments along the East Coast.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the decision reflects a shift in priorities driven by evolving threat assessments rather than energy policy debates. “The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Burgum said. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of adversary technologies and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects located near our east coast population centers.”
Among the projects affected are Vineyard Wind 1, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (Commercial), Sunrise Wind, and Empire Wind 1. Federal officials said the pause is intended to create time for Interior, the Department of War, and other agencies to work directly with developers and state governments to determine whether the risks can be mitigated — or whether the projects must be fundamentally reworked.
While the underlying War Department reports remain classified, unclassified federal analyses have long flagged concerns about how offshore wind infrastructure interacts with military and civilian radar systems. Massive turbine blades and tall, reflective towers can create radar “clutter,” a phenomenon that obscures real moving objects and generates false signals in sensitive surveillance zones.
A Department of Energy study published in 2024 warned that while radar systems can be adjusted to filter out some interference, raising detection thresholds increases the chance that real targets could be missed altogether — a tradeoff that defense planners consider unacceptable in high-risk environments.
Officials stressed that the pause is not a permanent cancellation but a security-driven reassessment. The goal, they said, is to ensure that expanding renewable energy infrastructure does not inadvertently degrade the government’s ability to monitor airspace and maritime activity or respond to emerging threats.
The move marks one of the most dramatic clashes yet between national security planning and large-scale renewable energy deployment. It also signals that, under the Trump administration, defense considerations are poised to override climate and energy timelines when the two collide.
For now, turbine construction is on hold, leaseholders are in limbo, and the offshore wind industry is facing a stark reality: when green energy meets classified threat assessments, national security comes first.
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