{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415211", "Patch article on Trump administration's halting of offshore wind projects'For The 2nd Time, Trump Pauses All Offshore Wind Farms, Including Empire Wind 19 Miles Off The Jersey Shore'", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Carly Baldwin\n\nPublished Monday, December 22, 2025 at 4:11 PM ET\n\nLONG BRANCH, NJ \u2014 For the second time this year, President Donald Trump's administration put a pause on all offshore wind farm development in the United States, and Empire Wind \u2014 currently being built 19 miles off Long Branch \u2014 is affected.\n\nOn Monday, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced here he is pausing the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the U.S. His decision temporarily shuts down existing wind farms that have been in operation for years, including Vineyard Wind off Martha's Vineyard and Sunrise Wind off Rhode Island. It also stops all work on wind farms in development, including Empire Wind, which started installing monopiles into the Atlantic Ocean floor and was 40 percent complete as of August.\n\nEmpire Wind is owned by Norwegian renewable energy company Equinor, the majority shareholder of which is the Kingdom of Norway.\n\nClean Ocean Action took these photos July 30 of Empire Wind being built off Long Branch. That's a monopile, at right, being pushed into the sea floor. (Clean Ocean Action)\n\nBurgum said he made his decision due to national security risks identified by the Department of War. Burgum cited reports from the Dept. of War that said the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers can create radar interference called \u201cclutter.\u201d That radar interference can obscure legitimate moving targets and generates false targets near wind farms.\n\n\"This pause will give the Department, along with the Department of War and other relevant government agencies, time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects,\" the Department of the Interior said Monday.\n\nThese are the five existing or planned wind farms off the United States affected by the new order:\n\nVineyard Wind 1 (OCS-A 0501) - off Marth's Vineyard, Massachusetts\n\nRevolution Wind (OCS-A 0486) - off Rhode Island and Connecticut\n\nCVOW \u2013 Commercial (OCS-A 0483) - off Virginia\n\nSunrise Wind (OCS-A 0487) - off Block Island, Rhode Island\n\nEmpire Wind 1 (OCS-A 0512) - off New Jersey\n\n\u201cWe are aware of the stop-work order announced by the Department of Interior involving five wind projects under offshore construction in the U.S. We are evaluating the order and seeking further information from the federal government,\" an Equinor spokesman said Monday.\n\nJersey Shore Congressman Chris Smith, a Republican who\u2019s opposed wind farms for years, said Monday:\n\n\"They will sue (referring to the wind companies), but it's done. This is the nail in the coffin. This is more than a pause. It's stopped. When you get into issues of national security, the courts will err on the side of national defense and the Department of Defense, or Department of War rather, as it's now called ... Offshore wind farms disrupt radar; the military has been saying this for years. You really could have planes flying into planes.\"\n\nOn his first day back in office in January, President Trump issued an executive order that put a pause on all U.S. wind farm development. However, Trump's order could not legally apply to existing wind farm leases that received permits from the Biden administration. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul intervened (Empire Wind is meant to supply wind power only to New York state, not New Jersey), and in May, the federal government lifted its stop-work order. Empire Wind was allowed to resume building off Long Branch.\n\nEmpire Wind is the only wind farm off New Jersey to actually begin construction; by mid August they were in the process of installing 54 monopiles into the ocean floor. Here are photos of Empire Wind being built off Long Branch.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415211"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7549211625009775, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}