Liam Denning, Columnist

New York Feels the Wind Chill of White House Power Politics

By ordering Equinor to stop work on a wind farm off the state’s coast, the government is sending a disturbing message to developers and financiers of renewable projects.

April 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Wind chill.
Photographer: Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images

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President Donald Trump is not fond of wind power. He also reacts badly to resistance. Furthermore, he appears to revel in upending the norms of society and business. All three just came together in a bombshell order against a huge offshore wind farm being built off the coast of New York’s Long Island — which is why this is about more than just a wind farm.

Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees development in federal waters, just ordered Equinor ASA to down tools on the 810-megawatt Empire Wind 1 project. Burgum claimed the administration of President Joe Biden had rushed its approval for Empire Wind and “further review” was needed. Without details, the veracity of that cannot be judged entirely.