New York Construction Report staff writer
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul joined the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island in demanding that the U.S. Department of the Interior immediately lift stop-work orders placed this week on five offshore wind projects under construction, including two major developments in New York.
In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Hochul, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee also demanded a classified briefing to review what they described as unexplained national security threats cited as the basis for the work stoppages.
The governors said the projects were approved after extensive federal review, including by the U.S. Department of Defense, and argued that the national security rationale contradicts years of analysis and established practices. They accused the Trump administration of using national security claims as a pretext to halt offshore wind development.
“The sudden emergence of a new ‘national security threat’ appears to be less a legitimate, rational finding of fact and more a pretextual excuse to justify a predetermined outcome consistent with the President’s frequently stated personal opposition to offshore wind,” the letter states.
The governors warned that blocking “gigawatts of domestic clean energy” would harm the U.S. economy and give foreign competitors an advantage. The letter cites the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 2025 annual report, which found that China added new power generation capacity in 2024 equivalent to one-third of the entire U.S. power grid, while the United States struggles to meet rising energy demand.
“With this irrational and erratic action, you are not solving a national security crisis; you are creating both a national security and economic disaster,” the governors wrote.
In New York, the paused Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind projects threaten more than 2,600 union jobs, according to the letter. Combined, the projects are expected to generate more than 1,700 megawatts of power, about 10% of New York City’s electricity needs.
Hochul earlier this year successfully pressed the Trump administration to lift a previous stop-work order on the Empire Wind project.
The governors demanded the immediate rescission of the current suspensions and said undisclosed or classified rationales cannot be used to halt projects involving thousands of jobs and major energy investments.
