by Brian Scott-Smith The New Haven independent
NEW LONDON, CT — Just days after the Trump Administration ordered the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to issue a stop work order on the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm, Gov. Ned Lamont and other state and local leaders held a press event condemning his actions.
Monday’s briefing was at State Pier in New London, which the state and investors have sunk $310 million in to redevelop it as a hub for the offshore wind industry.
Asked how much the stoppage was costing the state Lamont didn’t have a fixed number but said it was in the millions and growing.
Gov. Ned Lamont talks about the Revolution Wind stoppage in New London, CT on Aug. 25, 2025. Credit: Brian Scott-Smith / CTNewsJunkie
“You’ve got leases on the installation vehicles. You know, jobs that are at risk, you’ve got loans that are outstanding,” he said. “This is probably adding millions of dollars a week, millions of dollars a day, to the cost of this project. That’s why it’s so insane that they stop it before discussion.”
Other than the state, the burden of costs associated with the stoppage will fall to Orsted, the Danish energy giant that is the developer of Revolution Wind.
Orsted didn’t have a spokesperson present Monday.
Keith Brothers, the business manager of CT Laborer’s District Council, said the stoppage would hurt workers.
“There’s local apprentices, local training, and those jobs are prevailing wage rates,” he said. “They have a health benefit component, a retirement component, and some type of a 401k and annuity component. So, these are head of household jobs that pay that type of wage. So, the building trades really are the stakeholders.”
Brothers said to date millions of man hours had gone into the offshore wind industry across the nation.
“We’ve built 10 vessels in the U.S. for the offshore wind industry. That’s about 150,000 jobs and over a million-man hours with the shipbuilding industry,” he said. “Let us finish what we started. Let us go back to work.”
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes, whose department has been heavily involved in the offshore wind industry, said it was important to remember that wind energy is competitive with other energy sources.
“This is a project that we signed contracts in 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic, before a lot of the macroeconomic challenges we see now,” she said. “And the price is $99 per megawatt hour. So, that puts it in a competitive position relative to other renewable projects. When you think that the levelized price of new combined cycle gas units is near $80 per megawatt hour, you know, it’s just important to keep these things in mind.”
According to a new report for RENEW Northeast by Daymark Energy Advisors, if 3,500 megawatts of contracted offshore wind like Revolution Wind had been operational during the winter of 2024-25, New England consumers could have saved $400 million.
That report comes on the heels of an ISO New England report highlighting a 67% increase in the price of energy in New England between 2024 and 2025 due to a 112% rise in the cost of natural gas, which is the primary source generating the region’s electricity.
Even if the Revolution Wind project gets back on track soon, there is no timeline for BOEM to complete its investigations into concerns about national security and economic zones, and there’s no getting away from the fact that President Donald Trump is not a supporter of the industry and doesn’t intend to support it, said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.
“In the Big Beautiful Bill that he shepherded through Congress just a few months ago, there’s $190 billion of tax breaks and direct subsidies to the oil industry,” Murphy said. “This president is committed to destroying renewable energy and to powering this country only on oil and gas to please and help his friends. So, I’m not going to pretend that this decision is on the level. It’s not.”
While the Revolution Wind stoppage plays out, there’s also the question of whether the administration might go after other offshore wind projects, as it did earlier this year with Empire Wind, forcing the State of New York and Gov. Kathy Hochul to allow natural gas pipelines to be built in the state.Orsted’s next offshore wind project, Sunrise Wind, is estimated to power 600,000 homes. That project is also permitted and undertaking pre-construction work. It also would use New London’s State Pier for turbine assembly.