U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said national security concerns, including the potential use of offshore wind farms for “swarm drone attacks,” contributed to the Trump administration’s decision to halt work on Orsted’s 704-megawatt (MW) Revolution Wind project.
Speaking in an interview with CNN, Burgum pointed to evolving undersea and aerial threats as part of the administration’s rationale for pausing the project, which is located off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
“In particular, there are concerns about radar relative to undersea, and it doesn’t have to be a large Russian sub but undersea drones, a new technology,” Burgum said. “People with bad ulterior motives to the United States would launch a swarm drone attack through a wind farm.”
On August 22, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a stop-work order to Danish developer Orsted, citing the need to address “concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas.”
Burgum said several cabinet members had raised opposition to offshore wind development with former President Donald Trump, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
According to Burgum, Kennedy highlighted a recent incident involving a blade failure at the 804MW Vineyard Wind project—developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola—which resulted in fragments of a GE Vernova Haliade-X turbine washing ashore in Nantucket.
Burgum also cited opposition to federal tax incentives for offshore wind developers as part of the administration’s broader stance against the sector.
Orsted has not commented publicly on the stop-work order beyond confirming receipt of the directive from BOEM. The company previously expected the Revolution Wind project to begin operations in 2025.
