U.S. pauses all large offshore wind projects, citing national security concerns
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the pause on five offshore wind farm projects following red flags raised by the Department of War
by Summer Lane | December 22, 2025
President Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior announced Monday that it would pause the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects currently under construction in the United States, citing national security concerns.
These risks, the agency said, were identified in classified reports from the Department of War.
“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a statement.
He continued, “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers. The Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.”
This temporary suspension pauses at least five major offshore wind projects. According to the Department of the Interior, unclassified data from the federal apparatus has found “that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called ‘clutter.’”
This so-called “clutter” causes obfuscation and “false targets” in the region of these facilities, the department said.
President Donald Trump has generally been opposed to the construction of sprawling, land-based wind energy farms in the U.S., accusing the tech of being too “expensive.”
Over the summer, he remarked, “We will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States. They’re killing us. They’re killing the beauty of our scenery, our valleys, our beautiful plains…it’s a horrible thing, it’s the most expensive form of energy, it’s no good, they’re made in China – almost all of them – when they start to rust and rot in eight years, you can’t really turn em’ off, you can’t bury them.”
He called the technology a “con job” and suggested that this form of energy production, at the end of the day, needed a subsidy, which meant it would always result in losing money in energy production, rather than creating it.
Secretary Burgum on Monday argued that just one natural gas pipeline could supply as much energy as the five paused offshore wind projects combined. “@POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy policy & putting security first!” he said.
Photo: Adobe Stock
