Trump Administration Halts Construction At Offshore Wind Port In Sunset Park

By Idy Perl

Construction has been halted at Empire Wind 1, the offshore wind port at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park that broke ground around a year ago.

BoroPark24 reported on Mayor Adams’ visit to the construction site last summer, when the Mayor and Governor Hochul announced the start of the project, which is slated to be the largest offshore wind port in the country and power around 500,000 NYC homes. 

The future of the project is now up in the air after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced that he directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to immediately stop construction at the site, claiming that the Biden administration rushed the approval process. Trump has criticized wind turbines in the past, claiming that they cause cancer, and issued an executive order barring the federal government from auctioning off rights to build offshore wind farms on his first day back in office. 

Empire Wind 1 is now on hold until the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completes an independent assessment of the project. Local officials blasted the Trump administration and criticized the move, calling it federal overreach. 

“Every single day I’m working to make energy more affordable, reliable, and abundant in New York and the federal government should be supporting those efforts rather than undermining them,” Governor Hochul said in a statement.

photo: Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office