What Does President Trump’s Executive Order Mean for Humboldt Offshore Wind?

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum entitled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects” (1). The memorandum used the President’s authority under section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (2) – the same authority that President Biden used to prevent future leasing of oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf just a few weeks previously (3) – to prevent future leasing of offshore wind energy on the outer continental shelf. President Trump’s withdrawal went into effect on January 21, 2025 and will remain in effect until the Presidential Memorandum is revoked.

The Presidential Memorandum also directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases. The Presidential Memorandum does not contain a timeline for this review, but does direct the Secretary to submit a report on the topic to the President.

Section 2 of the Presidential Memorandum directs the Secretary of the Interior to cease permitting and approvals for all offshore wind projects until a review of federal leasing and permitting practices can be completed. The Presidential Memorandum alleges that federal permitting to date has been insufficient to protect several interests and that therefore a cessation and review is necessary. There is no timeline provided for this review and so the length of this halt in permitting is unclear.

So what does that mean for Humboldt Offshore Wind?

Wind energy developers RWE and Vineyard Offshore have final contracts for their offshore leases. So, the withdrawal of future leases does not directly affect them. However, this withdrawal does affect California and the Biden Administration's offshore wind energy goals, which will seriously hinder our ability to slow climate change.

While the cessation of permitting and approvals causes uncertainty for the developers, these projects already had long timelines to gather baseline information and design their projects. Given the need for scientific studies and development of technology, these projects were likely not going to be asking the federal government for permits or approvals for several years – regardless of the presidential administration. In the meantime, RWE and Vineyard should be able to continue to conduct surveys and consider different designs using the permits they have already received from the Federal Government. Therefore this Presidential Memorandum does not immediately impact these projects in the same way that it would if they were nearing completion of pre-permitting activities.

This page will update with new information as the situation changes.

References

The White House. Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects. January 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/temporary-withdrawal-of-all-areas-on-the-outer-continental-shelf-from-offshore-wind-leasing-and-review-of-the-federal-governments-leasing-and-permitting-practices-for-wind-projects/
United States Code. Title 43, Section 1341(a), 2025.
Daly, Matthew. "Biden Moves to Block Offshore Drilling in Atlantic, Pacific, Reversing Trump Policy." Associated Press, 26 Jan. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/biden-offshore-drilling-trump-florida-atlantic-pacific-aa26f50e158fd4f9c24d368898244dce.