Four US governors have called on the US Interior Department to immediately lift stop-work orders imposed on five offshore wind projects.
In a joint letter, the leaders of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island said the suspensions were issued on the basis of unspecified “national security concerns” and argued that the projects had already passed extensive federal reviews.
They added that no agency, including the Department of Defense, had alerted the states to any new risks before the orders were issued last week.
The governors demanded a classified briefing to outline the rationale for the halt, including details of any alleged threats and an explanation of why they were not raised earlier.
They warned that blocking gigawatts of expected capacity risked grid reliability, higher energy costs and weakened US competitiveness, stating that offshore wind is critical to meeting rising electricity demand from industry and data centres.
The letter also argued that the government had previously affirmed that offshore wind posed no national security threat and said the sudden shift appeared “pretextual”.
The governors further claimed the action amounted to an unlawful delay following a recent court ruling against federal attempts to pause new development.
They urged Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to rescind the suspensions and allow construction to resume.
The letter was signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul (pictured) as well as Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Ned Lamont of Connecticut and Dan McKee of Rhode Island.