How Trump's attack on wind power is impacting the energy industry

Geoff Bennett:

A federal judge cleared the way today for construction to resume on an offshore wind power project in New York state. It's the second time this week a court ruled against the Trump administration and its efforts to kill new wind power facilities.

President Trump has moved not just to stop approving new facilities, but to halt the completion of those under construction. It comes as wind energy has grown in the U.S., responsible for producing about 10 percent of all our electricity.

But as science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports for our Tipping Point series, the uncertainty is having an impact already.

Miles O'Brien:

Connecticut fisherman Gary Yerman is navigating some strong political crosscurrents these days. A staunch supporter of Donald Trump, he's also a vocal advocate for offshore wind, the very energy source the president loves to hate.

President Donald Trump:

We don't allow windmills. We're not allowing any windmills to go up. It ruins the landscape. It kills the birds. They're noisy. Those big windmills are so pathetic and so bad.

Miles O'Brien:

Despite Trump's disdain for wind, Gary Yerman saw an opportunity in the energy transition and seized it.

Gary Yerman, Sea Services:

There's a lot of money that's been spent to create this green energy, which I believe that we need more energy in this country.

Miles O'Brien:

He co-founded Sea Services, a company that helps offshore wind developers with logistics and security using local fishing crews and vessels. Sea Services employs 200 commercial fishermen on 20 boats, turning a source of friction into a new livelihood for working mariners.

Gary Yerman:

There's a lot of people that are counting on that, a lot of families that are counting on it.

Miles O'Brien:

Then in August came the Trump administration's order to pull the plug on the Revolution Wind project, which was nearly 80 percent complete. It was a devastating blow to Yerman's business, and yet he continued to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

Gary Yerman:

Trump's got something in mind. We don't know what it is yet. When he gets down to what he wants to get out of this, the deal will get struck in, Revolution Wind will start again.

Miles O'Brien:

There was no deal, but, in September, a federal judge lifted the ban on construction. Still, the Trump assault on offshore wind continues. Right before Christmas, the administration suspended all offshore wind leases, including Revolution, citing national security concerns, specifically claims that turbines interfere with Defense Department radar systems.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum explained on FOX News.

Doug Burgum, U.S. Interior Secretary:

These projects, they create radar clutter, they create radar shadows. This is the thing we want to look at, so that we have -- with national security concerns, are pausing these projects until we have an opportunity to see if the mitigation -- if there can be mitigation to cure these concerns.

Miles O'Brien:

But the Pentagon reviewed and approved these offshore wind sitings years ago under multiple administrations. Political leaders here remain dumbfounded.

Gov. Daniel McKee (D-RI):

I don't think the Trump administration really understands the consequences.

Miles O'Brien:

Dan McKee is the governor of Rhode Island.

Gov. Daniel McKee:

What are permits worth if all of a sudden, when you're 80 percent in a project, regardless of what the project is, that somehow the federal government is not going to honor those permits?

Miles O'Brien:

The smallest state has made a big bet on offshore wind. It invested $100 million in infrastructure and job training. In return, it hoped to get 2,500 jobs and electricity for 350,000 homes at 9.8 cents per kilowatt hour, roughly half the cost New Englanders paid during last winter's peak demand.

Gov. Daniel McKee:

Our biggest asset in Rhode Island is our ocean. And we expect that this industry is not only going to help support our rate payers that need to support our businesses. We need to take advantage of the resources that we have.

Miles O'Brien:

But the administration's broader strategy to suspend offshore wind leases, revoke permits and halt future leasing has become an industry once breezing toward production of 30 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, enough to power 11 million homes.

Across the country, demand for electricity is taking a sharp upturn after many years going in the opposite direction.

Chris Seiple is vice chairman of Wood Mackenzie, a global research and consultancy firm focused on energy.

Chris Seiple, Wood Mackenzie:

For 70 years, there's been a very consistent trend. Each decade, we have gotten less and less electricity demand from the same amount of economic growth.

Miles O'Brien:

That long plateau in electricity demand was made possible by major efficiency gains and the relentless offshoring of American manufacturing.

But that 70-year trend has now reversed. Manufacturing has been gradually returning to the U.S. for years, accelerating during the Biden administration, when the bipartisan infrastructure law, the CHIPS and Science ACT, and the Inflation Reduction Act spurred hundreds of billions of dollars in investment in semiconductor, batteries, clean energy, and advanced materials manufacturing.

Chris Seiple:

There's a single semiconductor manufacturing facility being built in Arizona that could eventually reach 1,200 megawatts of electricity demand. That is more demand than all of Colorado Springs, the city of about 500,000 people. This is just one single facility.

Miles O'Brien:

But the biggest drivers of new electricity demand are data centers, the energy-hungry facilities that power what we call the cloud and the rise of large language models driven by artificial intelligence.

Seiple says data centers already account for roughly 4 percent of U.S. electricity consumption and growth is accelerating. About 24 gigawatts of data center capacity is currently under construction. And utilities have committed to another 136 gigawatts of future data center build-out. If all that construction happens, data centers would consume 25 percent of the electricity currently generated in the U.S.

Chris Seiple:

This is more capacity than exists in the entire country of France that U.S. utilities have committed to add.

Miles O'Brien:

But there's a problem. It takes a lot longer to build a power plant than it does to stand up a data center. The Trump administration claims unleashing American energy is a priority, but the agenda is almost entirely focused on unleashing fossil fuels.

President Donald Trump:

Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy.

Miles O'Brien:

Wind developers have filed lawsuits to restart their projects. One judge has already allowed work to resume on the Revolution Wind farm. It's just one battle in a developing legal war with Washington.

Gov. Daniel McKee:

Now he's going to force us to go to court to make sure that we're protecting our jobs and our energy and our environment.

Miles O'Brien:

Trump has tilted at windmills since 2011, when plans surfaced to build 11 of them off the coast of his golf course in Scotland.

Many energy experts say pulling the plug on renewables will not enhance national security. In fact, they say it will undermine our ability to meet growing demand and it will weaken an already fragile grid.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Miles O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island.