Senate Democrats are ramping up efforts to investigate the Trump administration’s push to shut down offshore wind development.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the Interior Department’s leasing and permitting practices for offshore wind.
“The Trump Administration has shown a strong willingness to go to any lengths to kill wind projects, including stretching the bounds of the law,” Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, wrote to GAO. “It is imperative that Congress and the American people understand how DOI’s actions have crippled the development of wind energy in the country.”
The Government Accountability Office can decline requests from members of Congress, but requests from ranking members like Heinrich are prioritized.
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Heinrich’s request comes after a group of senators launched an investigation into buyout agreements totaling almost $2.6 billion that halted offshore wind projects planned for waters off of Maine, New York and California.
The senators asked the companies that received those buyouts — TotalEnergies, Ocean Winds, Duke Energy and Invenergy — to respond to questions about their communications with the Trump administration by Aug, 6.
President Donald Trump has taken a sweeping approach to halting the offshore wind industry, temporarily withdrawing leases in U.S. waters, pausing projects, canceling funding, requiring heightened review by the Interior Department, and paying developers to cancel planned projects.
Federal judges have deemed several of those actions unlawful, including the halting of new leases and a requirement for the interior secretary to sign off on all wind and solar projects on federal lands and water.
The administration’s efforts to shut down clean-energy projects has become a sticking point in bipartisan discussions of permitting reform, which Heinrich is leading for Democrats along with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island).
Streamlining the permitting process for energy projects and other infrastructure is a priority for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but longstanding partisan gridlock has made an agreement elusive.
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