Trump’s war on offshore wind is robbing a generation of workers

The Trump administration has halted permitting for new offshore wind projects and canceled 12 leases over the past year and a half, unraveling an industry that thousands of construction workers had trained for. Workers describe losing steady, high-paying jobs — some earning double or triple onshore wages while living on ships for weeks at a time — and having to return to lower-paying land-based construction work. A federal grant cancellation also killed plans for a wind terminal in Salem, Massachusetts, that was expected to support hundreds of jobs, and a planned cable-manufacturing plant near New Bedford was abandoned.

Market forecasts have shrunk sharply: analysts at BloombergNEF cut their 2035 offshore wind projection from 39 gigawatts (enough to power 13 million homes) down to just 6 gigawatts. Only five major U.S. offshore wind farms still appear on track, and those are nearing completion, meaning even those remaining construction jobs will soon end. Unions that spent millions training workers for what they expected to be a decade-plus of steady offshore work say that pipeline has largely dried up.

For homeowners, this doesn't change any current rebate or incentive programs directly, but it's a sign of the broader pullback in federal support for offshore wind and renewable energy under the current administration. If your area was counting on offshore wind for local jobs, manufacturing, or future electricity supply, those plans are now largely on hold or canceled, with no clear timeline for when — or whether — they might restart.