Chevron, Exxon and ConocoPhilips among those who donated millions to organise Trump’s inauguration ceremoniesCompanies and individuals with ties to the fossil fuel industry donated more than $19 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, new Global Witness analysis reveals.Representatives of the industry made at least 47 contributions to the fund, accounting for around 7.8% of the total amount raised. The figures come from itemised data released in April 2025 by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), reviewed by Global Witness.
What did Trump do on the first couple of weeks? He canceled offshore wind projects, including Connecticut's and Rhode Island project that is 80% complete!
In a wide-ranging executive order, Trump paused offshore wind lease sales and halted the approval of leases, permits and loans for both offshore and onshore wind energy projects.The Washington PostBy Maxine JoselowJanuary 21, 2025During his first moments back in the Oval Office on Monday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that pauses wind energy development on federal lands and waters, shocking and dismaying many climate advocates and clean-energy firms.
In another Washington Post article they report,
But for several East Coast states, their ambitious climate targets cannot be met without a huge amount of electricity generated through offshore wind. Those proposed projects — which lie near New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia — cannot happen without federal approval.[...]Without those and other offshore wind projects, East Coast states will burn more natural gas and struggle to meet their climate goals, said Julia Hoos, head analyst for the eastern United States at Aurora Energy Research, an energy market analytics provider. That in turn threatens the country’s overall goals, since big coastal cities generate a large share of U.S. emissions.
It does look like the oil and gas companies got their money's worth.
Meanwhile wind projects in Republican Idaho... the Lava Ridge Wind Project didn't get cut! And the New York Times reported that,
President Trump has sought to halt the construction of five giant wind farms off the coasts of Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island — all states run by Democrats.But there is one East Coast wind farm that has so far escaped the administration’s ire: a $10.8 billion project under construction off the shores of Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has been its champion.
[...]
Trump has disparaged wind energy ever since he failed 14 years ago to stop an offshore wind farm visible from one of his golf courses in Scotland. Since returning to office, he has taken the extraordinary step of instructing a half-dozen agencies to draft plans to thwart the country’s offshore wind industry.
I don't know about you but this sure looks like he is playing politics with wind projects, and that he has a vendetta against wind power!
And the states are having none of it...
Revolution Wind argued in the filing that the administration lacked the legal authority for the order.PoliticoBy Kelsey Tamborrino09/04/2025Blue state attorneys general and the companies building the nearly completed Revolution Wind project are suing the Trump administration for its order halting work on the project off the coast of New England — escalating the fight over the stalled project that is at the center of the administration’s efforts to restrict offshore wind.Revolution Wind — a joint venture between the Danish wind giant Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables — filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday seeking to vacate the stop-work order from Trump’s Interior Department, arguing that the administration lacked the legal authority for the decision.[...]“The Project has spent billions of dollars in reliance on these valid approvals,” the Revolution Wind filing said. “The Stop Work Order is invalid and must be set aside because it was issued without statutory authority, in violation of agency regulations and procedures and the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, and is arbitrary and capricious.”The states’ complaint contends that the action violates both the Administrative Procedure Act and the government’s authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Hey! But when did laws stop Trump... you keep on bulldozing the opposition.
State and federal officials, labor unions and clean energy advocates have pounced on the decision, arguing it will have a chilling effect on investments across the country while also costing the region some 1,000 union jobs. ISO New England, the region’s power grid operator, also warned that delaying the project “will increase risks” to reliability.
This is not all! CleanTechnica writes,
The Trump administration’s stop-work order on Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project has already become a defining event for investors and developers in the United States energy sector. The project was nearly complete, with billions already invested in turbines, monopiles, offshore cables, port infrastructure, and labor. Every required federal and state permit had been secured. Supply chains had been scaled up. Contracts had been signed with utilities to deliver electricity. Yet with a single vague justification of “national security,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management froze work on the project and threw its financial viability into doubt. Ørsted and its partner Skyborn are now in court, arguing that the order has no statutory basis and violates due process. No matter what the legal outcome, the larger message is unmistakable. In today’s United States, under a populist conservative administration, even a project that is legally permitted, financed, and nearly finished can be stopped cold.
Trump doesn't think up these thing on his own cronies take care for it all! Everyone know that there is probably a 90% chance the Trump will be over ruled by the courts but the damage has been done.
This case does not exist in isolation. It fits a pattern we have been watching take shape across conservative jurisdictions for years. Ontario is one of the starkest examples. In 2018, Doug Ford’s government canceled 758 renewable energy contracts in one stroke, including the White Pines wind farm in Prince Edward County that was already standing with turbines erected and grid connections in place. The government passed legislation to retroactively eliminate recourse through the courts, which meant developers could not even sue for damages. Millions in sunk capital evaporated overnight. Turbines that had taken years to build were torn down. The economic logic was shattered, but more importantly the political signal was unmistakable: in Ontario, a signed contract was no longer a guarantee of execution if the governing party disapproved of the technology.
What does that do to the credibility of the governments?
Across all of these cases, from Ontario’s mass cancellations to Alberta’s moratorium to Texas’s near miss and now the United States federal government’s stop-work order, the same features recur. Populist conservative governments see political advantage in opposing renewables. They take actions that affect projects after contracts are signed and financing is committed. They justify the interventions with broad, sometimes nebulous rationales, ranging from consumer relief to grid reliability to national security. They leave developers, financiers, and supply chains holding the costs. And they create an enduring chill on investment that stretches far beyond their borders.
If I was going to sign a contract that needed approval like a nuclear plant, or an environmental project I would now think twice before signing. Because our government's word is not good anymore it is wrapped in politics now.
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