Trump administration claims offshore wind poses a threat. But it won't say how.

"Late last month, the Trump administration halted construction on billions of dollars worth of offshore wind projects after the Defense Department allegedly raised new national security concerns about the facilities. But no one outside the federal government seems to know what sort of threats the administration has found. So far, the government has been unwilling to release that information even to the companies building the projects."

"The Interior Department sent stop-work orders on December 22 to the developers of five wind projects off the East Coast. The orders were based on classified reports recently completed by the Defense Department. The Interior Department said pausing construction would give federal agencies time to work with project developers to try to mitigate potential risks. Companies building infrastructure projects routinely work with the federal government to deal with issues that regulators raise, including around national security."

"Without information about newly-discovered threats, companies building the wind projects have said in court filings that they can't address the government's concerns. They said the lack of transparency suggests the administration's goal is to block wind projects, rather than to deal with legitimate national security issues. Dominion Energy, which is building a wind project off the Virginia coast, said in a court filing that the government's unspecified national security concerns are "pretext for this Administration's purely political and irrational campaign against wind energy.""

The Trump administration halted construction on billions of dollars of East Coast offshore wind projects after the Defense Department allegedly identified new national security concerns. The Interior Department issued stop-work orders on December 22 for five projects, citing classified Defense Department reports and saying the pause would allow federal agencies and developers time to assess and mitigate risks. Developers say lack of access to the classified findings prevents them from addressing the concerns and have argued in court that the administration may be using security claims to block wind development. Statements from Dominion Energy and the White House offered contrasting characterizations of the action.

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