US Energy Secretary Chris Wright (pictured) has denied a connection between President Donald Trump’s shutdown of five offshore wind projects currently under construction and the administration’s stated desire to take over Greenland.
Greenland is a territory of Denmark and the Danish state is the majority shareholder in Orsted, which is behind two of the paused projects, the 704MW Revolution Wind and the 924MW Sunrise Wind.
Wright made the comments in an interview with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan at the Goldman Energy and Utilities Conference in South Florida this week.
“Does the wind — offshore wind pause have anything to do with Greenland and Denmark?” Sullivan asked the Energy Secretary.
“No, I don’t believe there’s any connection there with Greenland or Denmark,” Wright said.
An earlier stop-work order issued by the Trump Administration in April to Equinor’s 810MW Empire Wind 1 resulted in high-level lobbying of Trump by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg.
That stop-work order was ultimately lifted.