By Mark Edward Nero
During the Biden administration, the development of commercial-scale offshore wind was a seen as a priority for strengthening America’s power grid.
But under the new Presidential administration? Not so much.
On Jan. 20, the first day of his second term in office, President Trump signed an executive order that likely pleased many in the commercial fishing industry: he directed the Treasury Department to freeze new offshore wind leases on the outer continental shelf (OCS).
The OCS region, which can be seen on the accompanying map, includes about 1 billion acres in Alaska, 609 million acres in the Hawaiian Islands and Midway Atoll and 825 million acres in the U.S. Pacific Territories.
Although Trump’s executive order withdraws the entire shelf for new or renewed offshore wind leasing, it doesn’t affect existing OSW leases or leases in the continental shelf for oil and gas development.
This change is a 180-degree turn from April 2024, when then-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a new multi-year offshore wind lease schedule, which included up to 12 potential offshore wind energy lease sales through 2028..
At the time, future lease sales from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management were anticipated in the Pacific and elsewhere over the next five years. The leasing schedule included four potential offshore lease sales in 2024, one each in 2025 and 2026, two in 2027, and four in 2028.
However, that’s been scrapped under the new regime, which is something that’s considered good news to people and organizations in the commercial fishing industry who are against the development of offshore wind in California, Oregon and elsewhere.
In recent years, professional mariners, fishermen, environmentalists and politicians have expressed concerns about OSW, related to interference in key fishing areas, loss of fishing opportunities, navigational and vessel traffic, entanglement with cables, lack of meaningful engagement and incorporation of public input, diminished upwellings and disruption to productive coastal ecosystems and marine mammals.
Some organizations, including the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization and the Port San Luis Commercial Fisherman Association, both of which represent commercial fishers in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., have gone so far as to sue to block coastal development permits that would allow surveys related to offshore wind development in state waters.
And they now have a huge ally: with the current federal administration being openly hostile toward the development of offshore wind, it’s not a stretch to think that Trump and his advisers will try to find a way to roll back the previous administration’s OSW initiatives.
It’s a topic that we’re following closely here, and we’ll provide you with situational updates as they occur. Stay tuned.
Managing Editor Mark Nero can be reached by phone at (619) 313-4351 or via email at mark@maritimepublishing.com.