By David Shepardson and Nichola Groom WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration said on Friday it was cancelling $679 million in federal funding for 12 offshore wind projects, including $427 million for a California project. The move is the latest in a full-throated effort by the administration to undermine an industry that was central to former […]
U.S.
Trump cancels $679 million in federal funding for offshore wind projects
Audio By Carbonatix
By David Shepardson and Nichola Groom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration said on Friday it was cancelling $679 million in federal funding for 12 offshore wind projects, including $427 million for a California project.
The move is the latest in a full-throated effort by the administration to undermine an industry that was central to former President Joe Biden’s climate and energy agendas.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the awards, made under the Biden administration, were a waste of funds “that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry.”
Last year, the department awarded $427 million to construct a new marine terminal to support construction and maintenance of offshore wind turbines in Humboldt County, California.
The Humboldt Bay project was intended to be the first offshore wind terminal on the Pacific coast. The funds were aimed at revitalizing a defunct marine terminal to be used for wind turbine assembly, launch and project staging.
A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the action as an example of the Trump administration “assaulting clean energy and infrastructure projects – hurting business and killing jobs in rural areas, and ceding our economic future to China.”
The department is also cutting a $47 million grant for an offshore wind logistics and manufacturing hub near the Port of Baltimore in Maryland and $48 million for an offshore wind terminal project in New York’s Staten Island awarded in 2022, along with $33 million for a port project in Salem, Massachusetts, to redevelop a vacant industrial facility for offshore wind projects.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said cancelling the Salem grant will cost 800 construction workers their jobs. “The real waste here is the Trump administration canceling tens of millions of dollars for a project that is already under way to increase our energy supply,” she said.
U.S. agencies, including the departments of defense, energy and commerce, said they are reviewing offshore wind farms approved by the Biden administration along the Atlantic coast after two recent major cancellations.
The transportation department has also canceled major grants for California high-speed rail and other environmental infrastructure projects.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Nichola Groom; Editing by Mark Porter, Kirsten Donovan and Edmund Klamann)