by Donald Eng CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT — Four state governors are demanding either a briefing on purported security threats or an immediate lifting of stop work orders on five offshore wind projects under construction, including the Revolution Wind project that is expected to power 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island beginning in 2026.
On Wednesday, governors Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Kathy Hochul of New York and Dan McKee of Rhode Island sent a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanding the immediate lifting of stop work orders placed Monday on five offshore wind projects under construction, including the nearly complete Revolution Wind. The governors also demanded a classified briefing to review the unexplained national security threats used to place the stop work orders.
The letter notes that the targeted projects were approved after undergoing substantial federal reviews and processes, including by the U.S. Department of Defense.
In the letter the governors said they take national security seriously, and said the projects already had received substantial review.
“Neither the Department of the Interior, BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management), nor any other federal agency, including the Department of Defense (“DoD”), informed our respective States of any purportedly new risk prior to these suspensions,” they wrote. “The sudden emergence of a new ‘national security threat’ appears to be less a legitimate, rational finding of fact and more a pretextual excuse to justify a predetermined outcome consistent with the President’s frequently stated personal opposition to offshore wind.”
They also demanded a classified briefing on the claimed new information cited for the halt to work.
“It strains credulity to believe that vital, substantial projects that underwent many federal reviews and processes, including by the DoD, all of a sudden present new, existential, unforeseen threats,” they wrote. “Erratic, unpredictable, irrational actions like these are no way to govern, let alone plan for power generation capacity decades into the future.”
The governors also rejected the claim that wind turbines generate radar “clutter” and degraded performance, stating that such claims would also apply to oil rigs and other infrastructure in the ocean. Further, the governors said the wind turbines are below the horizon of land-based radar.
“The military had the opportunity to raise concerns and object. They did not, and further certified there was no threat to national security,” they wrote. “To claim a threat exists now, after billions of dollars have been invested in these projects and reviews fully completed, is the height of irrationality.”
They concluded by making the argument that energy independence was a national security asset.
“Do not be the administration that handed the future to our adversaries by turning off the power at home, they wrote. “Rescind these suspensions immediately. Let us get back to the work of powering this great nation.
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