Interior Halts Revolution Wind Project
BOEM’s unprecedented order could hurt workers, electricity customers, and grid reliability.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Department of the Interior ordered a halt to construction on the Revolution Wind project offshore of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The project is nearly 80 percent complete and set to provide power to customers in the two states starting next year.
Once completed, Revolution Wind would generate 704 megawatts of clean energy, capable of powering nearly 250,000 homes.
The following is a comment from Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“The Trump administration’s war on the electricity needed to power the grid continues on all fronts. Halting Revolution Wind is a devastating attack on workers, on electricity customers, and on the investment climate in the United States.
“New England homeowners will feel this when they tear open their electricity bills and look at the surging costs of keeping the lights on.
“This administration has it exactly backwards. It’s trying to prop up clunky, polluting coal plants while doing all it can to halt the fastest growing energy sources of the future: solar and wind power.
“It makes no sense to say we have an energy emergency and then make decisions like this. Unfortunately, every American is paying the price for these misguided actions.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).