Trump Puts Pause On Wind Farms, Wants Oil/Gas Drilling Off NJ Instead

JERSEY SHORE — President Donald Trump wants to stop all future wind farm development off the Jersey Shore, and instead open up hundreds of thousands of acres of the Atlantic Ocean to oil and natural gas drilling.

On Monday, his first day in office, Trump signed a total of 26 executive orders, and one of them puts a temporary halt on all offshore wind lease sales in the United States. Trump's executive order, written by South Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, also put a pause on all U.S. wind farm development, including getting permits and loans from banks, for wind turbines both in the ocean and on land. The pause will be in place for at least the next six months so Trump's secretary of the Interior, former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, can review how wind farm leases and permits were issued under the Biden administration.

Also Monday, Trump signed another executive order that revokes a ban Biden put into place that permanently prohibits offshore oil and natural gas exploration along the entire East and West coasts, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.

But Central Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ6), who supports Biden's offshore drilling ban, predicted Trump will be unable to unravel Biden's ban with a simple swipe of his pen. It requires a majority vote by Congress to undo an executive order from the president, and Republicans currently have a razor-thin (two seat) majority in the House of Representatives.

“He can sign whatever he'd like, but President Trump cannot unilaterally change laws," Pallone said this week. "It would take an act of Congress to allow offshore drilling off the East Coast, period. Good luck with that.”

Trump is also certain to face legal challenges for attempting to overturn Biden's offshore oil drilling ban, Reuters reported this week. Biden put his offshore oil/gas ban into place on Jan. 6, in his second-to-last week in office. Biden did so via an executive order of his own, and using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Also while he was in office, Biden opened up the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey to be leased by offshore wind developers. It was a decision celebrated by Gov. Phil Murphy, who said it would help New Jersey achieve entirely renewable energy by the year 2035.

However, not a single wind turbine has been constructed yet off the Jersey Shore. On Oct. 31, 2023, Danish wind company Orsted famously backed out of their wind farm, and British Petroleum announced last January they terminated plans to build Empire Wind 2, which would have been 19 miles off Long Branch.

The Jersey Shore wind farm that's closest to being built is Atlantic Shores South, which would be 8.7 miles off Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island, and run south to Atlantic City. The project already received key federal approvals this past October, and it remains unknown how Trump's new pause will affect its future. U.S. Interior Secretary Burgum said in his confirmation hearing that offshore wind leases that were already approved will continue "if they make sense."

But Trump wrote just Thursday of Atlantic Shores South:

"A special thank you to great New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew for his fight against a large scale Windmill DISASTER off the coast of Southern New Jersey," Trump posted to his Truth Social account. "It needed MASSIVE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY that was impossible to justify. Hopefully the project is dead and gone, as almost all unsightly and environmentally unsound Windmill project should be. Congratulations to the great people of New Jersey. You have FINALLY won your war on stupidity!!!"

Van Drew and New Jersey's sole other Republican Congressman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ4) praised Trump's executive halt on wind farms.

"President Trump’s executive order will ensure proper reviews for projects expedited without real examination, such as Atlantic Shores South,” Smith said this week. "For years the Biden-Harris Administration has ignored our concerns about wind farms, specifically to military radar systems, marine mammals and the livelihoods of our coastal communities."

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