Donald Trump’s staunch opposition to wind turbines — on the unsubstantiated grounds that they cause cancer and kill whales — is keeping offshore wind executives up at night. The fledgling industry is nervous that the former president will create a permitting nightmare should he win in November, writes Benjamin Storrow. One anonymous industry official told Benjamin a Trump victory is a “terrifying” prospect, adding, “I think anyone who is telling themselves that they’ll find a way around it is kidding themselves.” Tonight, Trump is poised to win the lion’s share of delegates in 15 states over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in his seemingly inevitable march to the Republican presidential nomination. And a recent poll of likely voters by The New York Times shows Trump leading President Joe Biden by 4 percentage points. The Trump campaign did not respond to Benjamin for a request for comment. But congressional Republicans have called for a moratorium on offshore wind development, and Trump has already spent years on the anti-wind bandwagon. “Trump has been quite vocal about his dislike for offshore wind,” said Mads Nipper, CEO of the Danish wind giant Ørsted, at a recent event with financial analysts. Permitting is “the biggest risk in case of a Trump administration,” he added. Trump’s policy platform, known as Agenda 47, makes no mention of offshore wind but vows to eliminate “insane wind subsidies.” Trump’s allies have proposed repealing Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which provides subsidies to clean energy projects like offshore wind. The offshore wind industry also remembers Trump’s first term, when the Interior Department nearly derailed Vineyard Wind — a 62-turbine development off the coast of Massachusetts — by unexpectedly ordering an additional, sweeping environmental review. A second Trump administration would put offshore wind projects without federal permits most at risk, said Tim Fox, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners. Federal agencies could divert resources away from offshore wind permitting and toward fossil fuel projects, he said. The administration could even agree to reconsider existing permits that have been challenged in court, though Fox called that a less likely worst-case scenario. Should Trump win, offshore wind would also likely become a battleground between blue states and the administration. Democratic-led states, particularly in the Northeast, are banking on offshore wind energy to help them achieve their climate goals. States like New York and New Jersey have recently awarded new power contracts to wind developers, while three more states are accepting bids for contracts this year. “These states have their own climate, renewable targets,” said Kevin Beicke, an analyst who tracks the industry at Morningstar. “They’re going to go for it and try to get these offshore wind projects done no matter what the federal government wants to do.” | 
