The Trump administration has officially requested a federal judge to revoke approval for the Maryland offshore wind permit, marking another significant blow to the renewable energy sector. The Interior Department filed a motion Friday asking to vacate the permit for the 114-turbine wind farm off Ocean City’s coast, which was approved during the final weeks of the Biden presidency and designed to power over 718,000 homes.
Justice Department cites inadequate impact assessment
The Trump administration has officially asked a judge to vacate a crucial federal permit issued for the wind farm proposed off the coast of Ocean City, according to Maryland Matters. The move was expected, originally signaled by Justice Department attorneys in late August, but Friday’s filing provided more details on the government’s justification for reconsidering the project’s “construction and operations plan” that was approved late in President Joe Biden’s (D) presidency.
In the filing, Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam R.F. Gustafson cited a Jan. 20 directive from President Donald Trump (R) that ordered a review of all federally permitted wind projects, in addition to halting the issuance of new permits. The government argued it did not adequately consider the impacts of the Ocean City project — to be developed by US Wind — on commercial fisheries and potential search-and-rescue efforts in the area.
Project faces financial and regulatory challenges
Maryland’s first offshore wind farm could have broken ground next year. But now the 114-turbine renewable energy project is all but doomed following the Trump administration’s most recent move in a long line of attacks on the industry, reports Canary Media. In a motion filed Friday with the U.S. District Court in Maryland, the Interior Department asked a judge to cancel approval of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which was authorized in the final weeks of the Biden administration.
Officials claim that the agency’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management made an “error” when assessing the turbines’ potential impact on other activities — like search-and-rescue operations and fishing — within the 80,000-acre swath of ocean where the wind farm would be located. The project is over a decade in the making, with developer US Wind purchasing the lease in 2014.
Tax credit changes compound difficulties
But after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July and greatly shortened the duration of the wind energy tax credit, Maryland’s first offshore wind farm already seemed impossible to pull off — at least economically. Harrison Sholler, an offshore wind analyst with BloombergNEF, told Canary Media in July that with the tax credits sunsetting at a much earlier date, the Maryland project would likely no longer be able to offset 30% of its costs.
Developer vows to fight revocation
US Wind is a joint venture of the Italian corporate giant Toto Holding and Apollo Global Management, an investment firm. A spokesperson for the company said it will fight to maintain its approvals. “After many years of analysis, several federal agencies issued final permits to the project,” spokesperson Nancy Sopko said in a public statement released Friday. “We intend to vigorously defend those permits in federal court, and we are confident that the court will uphold their validity and prevent any adverse action against them.”
The decision of the Trump administration to rescind the offshore wind permit in Maryland is a huge step in federal opposition to renewable energy conjectures. The project, consisting of 114 turbines, supported by the cut in the tax credit timelines, is experiencing an increasing number of challenges that may halt the implementation. Although the US Wind vows to appeal in a court of law, the future of the project remains unclear in the context of the larger hostilities of the US to offshore wind development in the country.