NE wind energy projects face delays—or worse—under new order

A new executive order may doom SouthCoast Wind.

President Donald J. Trump doubled down this week on his efforts to scuttle renewable energy projects, further imperiling the SouthCoast Wind project that would supply electricity to more than 800,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Trump’s latest executive order, signed on Monday, July 7, directs the US Treasury Department to “strictly enforce” the elimination of federal tax incentives for renewable energy that were rolled back when Congress passed the president’s tax bill on July 3.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act effectively ends renewable energy tax credits after 2026 if projects have not started construction,” Reuters reported on Monday. “Wind and solar projects whose construction starts after that must be placed in service by the end of 2027. Under previous law, project developers would have been able to claim a 30 percent tax credit through 2032.”

Specifically, Reuters was describing the energy investment tax credit, which is the federal tax provision supporting offshore wind. It provides a 30% tax credit for offshore wind projects that begin construction before January 1, 2026.

At best, the new legislation creates an “uphill climb” for renewable energy in New England, said Amy Boyd Rabin, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

The Environmental League of Massachusetts is a 127-year-old, science-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group fighting climate change, according to the organization’s website.

“This is especially detrimental for New England because we have no pipelines that are halfway built, but we have lots of wind farms that are a decade away,” Rabin said.

But which projects will be able to proceed, if any, remained unclear this week as energy experts, environmentalists and policymakers dug deeper into the specifics of the new tax bill governing renewable energy.

Chris Powicki, an energy consultant and environmentalist who lives in Bourne, said he did not know whether the new policy would deal a death blow to SouthCoast Wind’s 141 wind turbine project that was already fighting for life.

The project was delayed by two years as a result of Trump’s January memo, which froze wind project permitting and leasing, according to a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by the attorneys general of 16 states—including Rhode Island and Massachusetts—arguing against the freeze.

That suit is pending.

SouthCoast Wind officials could not be reached for comment on this story, but a recent story in New Bedford Light said a June court filing by Michael Brown, SouthCoast’s CEO, says that it now may be impossible for the parties to execute purchase agreements and the company would then be “forced to abandon” negotiations with Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

And that was before the passage of the massive tax bill and the issuance of Trump’s executive order on Monday.

The president on Monday said he will “end taxpayer support for unaffordable and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources,” such as wind and solar.

Elizabeth Mahony, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, has said that the president’s January Wind Directive, if left in place, would pose “an insurmountable challenge to project viability.”

Some residents in Falmouth have opposed the idea of allowing SouthCoast to bring electrical cables ashore at Worcester Avenue in Falmouth Heights. They opposed the use of public land. The cables would then run underground up the center of Worcester Avenue, which is park land. They have expressed concern about the use of public land, but the issue may now be moot.

Powicki said Trump’s latest attack on renewables will hurt the Cape and all of Massachusetts.

“If there are no additional projects allowed, there’s no way the state will meet its energy reduction goals by 2030,” Powicki said. “The state will have to go back to the drawing board and look for other solutions. They’re already rethinking things and considering nuclear energy.”

Other states, including New York and New Jersey, also face the loss of wind farm projects in the shadow of the new administration’s policies.

The SouthCoast Wind commercial offshore wind energy project was approved by the Biden Administration in December of 2024.

The 2.4-gigawatt wind farm would span 127,000 acres of federal waters 26 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and include 141 wind turbines—each standing 1,066 feet tall—and five offshore substation platforms, with undersea cables making landfall at Falmouth Heights and/or Brayton Point in Somerset.

The energy that the wind farm was expected to generate is enough electricity to power more than 840,000 homes.

Construction had been on hold while the company sought permits from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Army Corps of Engineers.