Trump’s broadside against wind industry puts projects that could power millions of homes at risk
A view of the turbines at Orsted’s offshore wind farm near Nysted, Denmark, September 4, 2023.
Tom Little | Reuters
President Donald Trump promised to unleash U.S. energy dominance, but his sweeping executive order targeting wind power puts a pipeline of projects at risk that would generate enough electricity for millions of American homes.
The order Trump issued on his first day in office indefinitely paused new offshore wind leases in U.S. coastal waters and halted new permits pending the completion of a review. The order jeopardizes proposed projects on the East Coast that have not yet secured permits totaling 32 gigawatts of power, according to data from the consulting firm Aurora Energy Research.
“At the moment, it’s really hard to see how any of these projects will be able to move forward,” said Artem Abramov, head of new energies research at the consultancy Rystad. Like Aurora, Rystad estimates that around 30 gigawatts of projects on the U.S. East Coast are at risk.
Those projects, if realized, would provide enough combined power for more than 12 million homes in the U.S., according a CNBC analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration. The order is not expected to impact projects under construction totaling about 5 gigawatts, according to Aurora.
Trump has abandoned commitments made during the Biden administration to fight climate change, withdrawing the U.S. for a second time from the Paris agreement. He has focused on boosting fossil fuel production, opening U.S. coastal waters to oil and gas leasing on the same day he withdrew those waters for wind.
Trump’s order will jeopardize the efforts of states in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast to transition away from fossil fuels and decarbonize their electric grid, Abramov said. New York, New Jersey and Virginia, for example, have ambitious clean energy goals adopted at the state level. But they are too far north to rely on solar with battery for power, Abramov said.
“If you want to achieve the future where the power generation in New York or New Jersey or Virginia is completely fossil free, if that’s the ultimate goal, there are not so many alternatives to offshore wind,” Abramov said.
The order could ultimately force states to rely more on carbon-emitting natural gas, according to Rystad and Aurora. But it is virtually impossible for a state like New York to meet its climate goals and ensure an adequate energy supply, particularly downstate in the New York City metro area, without offshore wind, said Julia Hoos, who heads Aurora’s U.S. East division.
Power projects waiting in line to connect to the electric grid in downstate New York through 2027 are almost entirely wind and transmission, Hoos said.
“There is virtually no possibility to bring online new gas in the next 18 to 24 months, unless there’s a significant reform or there’s some sort of fast track to bring online that gas, so you really can run into reliability issues,” Hoos said.
But more natural gas generation will likely be built later in the decade on the back of Trump’s policies, Hoos said. Investor sentiment was already shifting toward gas before the election results due in part to the need for reliable power to meet demand from artificial intelligence data centers, Abramov said.
Immediate impact
Two weeks after Trump’s order, New Jersey decided against moving forward for now with the Atlantic Shores project, which stood to become the first offshore wind development in the state. The state utilities board cited “uncertainty driven by federal actions and permitting” and European oil major Shell pulling out of the project.
“The offshore wind industry is currently facing significant challenges, and now is the time for patience and prudence,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement backing the board’s decision.
Murphy, who has set a goal to achieve 100% clean energy in New Jersey by 2035, said he hoped “the Trump Administration will partner with New Jersey to lower costs for consumers, promote energy security, and create good-paying construction and manufacturing jobs.”
Offshore wind in the U.S. “has come to a stop, more or less with immediate effect” in the wake of Trump’s order, Vestas Wind Energy Systems CEO Henrik Andersen told investors on the company’s Feb. 5 earnings call. Denmark’s Vestas is one of the world’s leaders in manufacturing and servicing wind turbines.
Industry headwinds
Trump’s order deepens the challenges of an industry that was already facing an uncertain outlook after years growth.
Wind has surged as power source in the U.S. over the past 25 years from 2.4 gigawatts of installed generating capacity to 150 gigawatts by April 2024, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. Generation from wind hit a record that month, surpassing coal-fired power. Wind currently represents about 11% of total U.S. power generation.
But the industry has struggled against supply chain bottlenecks and high interest rates. Offshore wind was already the the most expensive form of renewable energy, Abramov said. Developers in the U.S. have faced a lot of cost certainty due to the challenges of building on water as opposed to land, Hoos said.
“The industry was hoping that the cost would come down,” Abramov said. “We haven’t seen any projects in the United States which was able to achieve lower levelized cost of energy.”
The world’s largest offshore wind developer, Denmark’s Orsted, decided on Feb. 5 to ditch its goal to install up to 38 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Orsted also slashed its investment program through the end of the decade by about 25% to range of 210 to 230 billion Danish crowns (about $29 billion to $32 billion), down from 270 billion crowns previously.
Orsted’s Sunrise Wind and Revolution wind projects that are under construction offshore New York and New England respectively should not be impacted by Trump’s order, CEO Rasmus Errboe told investors the company’s company’s Feb. 6 earnings call. Future developments, however, may be at risk.
“We are fully committed to moving them forward and deliver on our commitments,” Errboe said. “We do not expect that the executive order will have any implications on assets under construction, but of course for assets under development, it’s potentially a different situation.”
The order also should not impact Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, the largest such project under construction in the U.S. at 2.6 gigawatts of power, Dominion Energy CEO Robert Blue told investors on the utility’s Feb. 12 earning call.
“Stopping it would be the most inflationary action that could be taken with respect to energy in Virginia,” Blue said. “It’s needed to power that growing data center market we’ve been talking about, critical to continuing U.S. superiority in AI and technology.”
Looking for clarity
The wind industry lobby group American Clean Power in a Jan. 20 statement described Trump’s order as a blanket measure that will jeopardize domestic energy development and harm American businesses and workers. The president’s order contradicts the administration’s goal to reduce bureaucracy and unleash energy production, ACP CEO Jason Grumet said in the statement.
The ACP is now trying to get clarity from the Trump administration on how the executive order will be implemented, said Frank Macchiarola, the group’s chief advocacy officer. It’s unclear, for example, when the review of permit and lease practices will be complete, Macchiarola said.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department simply said the department is implementing Trump’s executive order when asked for comment on a detailed list of questions. When asked when the review of permit and lease practices will be complete, the spokesperson said any estimate would be hypothetical.
The wind industry is committed to working with the Trump administration, supports the president’s push for energy dominance agenda and is making the case that renewables have a key role to play in that agenda as the largest new source of electricity in the U.S., Macchiarola said.
“When past administrations have chosen to stifle American energy development that has been almost universally viewed as a mistake,” Macchiarola said.
Onshore wind permitting has also been halted pending the review, but the part of the industry is unlikely to face a substantial impact, Rystad’s Abramov said. Wind farms onshore are almost entirely built on private rather than federal land, he said. The market is also already saturated and adding capacity is largely dependent on building out more energy storage first, the analyst said.
Offshore wind, however, is a much less mature market in the U.S. and was viewed as major growth opportunity for the industry, Abramov said. But that appears to changing rapidly.
“They don’t see the U.S. as a market for continuous offshore wind expansion as long as this order is in place,” the analyst said.
— CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed happened this weekend, and Ford’s electric SuperTruck managed to beat every other vehicle, gas or electric, to the top of the hill.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a yearly event on the grounds of Goodwood House, a historic estate in West Sussex, England. The event started in 1993, and has become one of the largest motorsports festivals in the world.
Many companies attend Goodwood to debut new models, and enthusiasts or race teams will show off rare or customized vehicles or race unique cars.
One of the central features of the event is the Goodwood hillclimb, a short one-way race up a small hill on the property. The track is only 1.17mi/1.89km long, with a 304ft/92.7m uphill climb. It’s not a particularly taxing event – merely a fun way to show off some classic or unique racing vehicles.
As is often the case, companies brought out several interesting EVs to the event, including Honda’s Super EV concept, the recently-unveiled Hyundai Ioniq 6N, and the upcoming Porsche Cayenne EV, still in camouflage after recently setting an SUV record at another UK hillclimb.
Many of these cars came just to show off, to do a demonstration run up the hill and join the company of the world’s most exotic hypercars.
But some cars show up for the glory, and join “the shootout,” the sprint up the hill for the best time.
And Ford didn’t come to show off, it came to win. And in order to win, it brought…. a truck.
Ford’s SuperTruck is a one-off, 1,400+ horsepower prototype electric vehicle, supposedly based on the F-150 Lightning, but in fact bearing almost no similarity or even resemblance.
It’s been festooned with aerodynamic elements all about, lowered, equipped with race tires, and power output has been boosted to the aforementioned 1,400hp. It was driven by Romain Dumas, who Ford have been using since 2022 to drive their electric prototypes.
For the purposes of a hillclimb, perhaps the most important aspect is the Ford’s electric drive. Hillclimbs are a popular form of racing in Britain, and often consist of a short sprint up a small hill, showcasing acceleration and nimbleness more than anything.
Electric cars do well in this sort of racing due to their instant low-end torque, being able to jump off the line faster than the gas competition. They also tend to have plenty of torque, which helps with carrying them up the hills involved.
EVs do well on longer hillclimbs too, because as races reach higher and higher altitudes, gas cars suffer from reduced power due to less oxygen being available for combustion. EVs don’t suffer from this, so they tend to do well at, say, Pike’s Peak hillclimb – which, incidentally, Ford also brought its SuperTruck to, and also beat everybody at.
This year was not the first time Ford has brought a ridiculous electric chonker to Goodwood. Last year, it brought the SuperVan, which has a similar powertrain to the SuperTruck, and also beat everybody.
The SuperVan’s main competition last year was Subaru’s 670hp “Project Midnight” WRX, piloted by Scott Speed, who Dumas handily defeated by over two seconds, 43.98 to 46.07. And this year, the SuperTruck’s main competition was… the same Subaru, piloted by Speed, who Dumas handily defeated by just under two seconds, 43.23 to 45.03.
Ford did not, however, set an all-time record with the SuperTruck, in fact coming in fifth on the list of fastest runs ever. In front of it are two gas cars and two electric – the gas-powered Gould GR51, a tiny open-wheel race car, with a 42.90; an F1 car driven by Nick Heidfeld that set a 41.6 in 1999; the electric VW ID.R, also piloted by Dumas with a 39.90 (which broke Heidfeld’s 20-year record); and the all-time record holder the electric McMurtry Spierling “fan car,” with a mind-blowing 39.08 in 2019.
You’ll notice something similar about all of these – they’re all small racecars that are actually built for speed, whereas the truck is… a big truck. And yet, Ford still managed to beat every single challenger this year, with its big honker of an EV, because EVs are just better.
Watch the run in full below, starting at 9:34. Blink and you’ll miss it.
And now, if Ford continues its pattern, we’re looking forward to seeing the Super Mustang Mach-E at Goodwood next year, which did well this year at a tough Pike’s Peak, getting first in its class and second overall, likely due to inclement conditions that limited running to the lower portion of the course, limiting the EV’s high-altitude advantages.
Given the Super Mustang is a real racecar, and not a chonky truck, it might even give VW’s ID.R time a run for its money (but, frankly, really has no shot at the overall record, because the Spierling’s “fans” give it an absurdly unbeatable amount of downforce).
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Environment
GM gears up to build low-cost LFP EV batteries in Tennessee after announcing new upgrades
GM is preparing to begin converting production lines at its battery plant in Tennessee later this year for low-cost LFP EV batteries. GM’s joint venture, Ultium Cells, announced additional upgrades at the facility on Monday as it prepares for a new era.
GM will build low-cost LFP EV batteries in the US
After beating out Ford and Hyundai last year to become America’s second-best EV seller, GM is widening its lead in 2025.
Ultium Cells, GM’s joint venture with LG Energy Solution, announced plans to upgrade its Tennessee battery plant on Monday as it prepares to introduce lower-cost lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery cells.
The upgrades build on the $2.3 billion investment announced in April 2021 to convert the facility into a key EV and battery hub. The company initially said the Tennessee plant was “at the heart of GM’s EV strategy,” but that was also when GM was still committed to an all-electric future.
GM will begin converting production lines to accommodate the lower-cost LFP batteries at the facility later this year. By late 2027, the company expects to start commercial production.
With LFP batteries, GM said it’s “targeting significant battery pack cost savings compared to today’s high-nickel battery pack while increasing consumer EV choice.”
The Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant currently employs around 1,300 employees. With the ability to produce multiple chemistries, GM said the facility will “guide the next phase of” its battery strategy.
After choosing Spring Hill for its LFP batteries, the next step, according to GM, is finding a home for lithium manganese-rich batteries. GM recently announced plans to become the first company to produce LMR prismatic battery cells at commercial scale.
Meanwhile, GM’s Warren, Ohio, plant will continue producing NCM batteries, which it says have helped it unlock over 300 miles of range.
Electrek’s Take
GM’s electric vehicle sales more than doubled in the second quarter, led by the hot-selling Chevy Equinox EV. The company sold nearly 46,300 EVs in Q2, up 11% from last year.
Chevy is currently the fastest-growing EV brand in the US, while Cadillac claims to have already achieved “EV leader” status in the luxury segment this year. However, that does not include Tesla.
Even GMC is building momentum with the new Sierra EV, seeing strong initial demand, and Hummer EV sales are picking up.
With new, lower-cost batteries on the way, GM aims to continue narrowing the gap with Tesla. GM offers 13 electric vehicles, covering nearly every segment of the market. It already calls the Chevy Equinox EV “America’s most affordable +315 range EV,” but GM has even lower-priced models on the way, including the next-gen Chevy Bolt EV.
Ready to test drive one for yourself? You can use our links below to find Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC EVs in your area.
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Environment
Elon Musk says Tesla is going to have ‘the most epic demo ever’, but we heard that before
Elon Musk is teasing Tesla doing “the most epic demo ever”, but we heard him claim that before and nothing came of it.
On X last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he was shown something at the Tesla Design Studio and that the company will hold the ” most epic demo ever by the end of the year”:
Just left the Tesla Design Studio. Most epic demo ever by the end of the year. Ever.
I used to get excited about Musk making statements like that, but I was burned one too many times.
In 2016, Musk said this:
Our goal is, and I feel pretty good about this goal, that we’ll be able to do a demonstration drive of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York … by the end of next year.
The end of 2017 came and went without this demonstration and now in 2025, Tesla can’t do it either.
However, since Musk referenced being at Tesla’s Design Studio, where it mostly works on car designs and advanced features, people are speculating that it’s something else.
A possibility is the next-gen Tesla Roadster, as Musk has made similar comments about it in the past, but they were again about demonstrations that never happened.
Shortly after the unveiling of the next-gen Roadster in 2017, Musk talked about adding cold air thruster to the supercar to allow it to have unprecedented racing performance and even possibly hover over the ground.
In 2019, Musk told me that Tesla aimed to do a demonstration of that by the end of 2020:
5 years later, it never happened, and the Roadster was initially supposed to come to market in 2020. It has never launched.
In 2024, Musk claimed that Tesla would unveil and demo the new Roadster by the end of the year:
It also didn’t happen, and the CEO instead said that Tesla was “close to finalizing design” at the end of 2025.
Electrek’s Take
The comment about the demo makes me think of the Roadster, but it could be something else. Maybe a bot, but I’m not sure out of the design studio.
Either way, for the reasons listed above, it’s hard to get too excited.
You can’t just believe what Musk says these days. Historically, he has been wrong or lied too often, especially about upcoming demonstrations like this new comment.
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