With an Executive Order, the new Trump administration has paused all new lease rounds and permitting procedures for offshore wind projects within the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS). The halt does not affect the rights to existing lease areas in the effected areas. However, the new administration, with respect to existing leases, will conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any wind energy leases and identifying any legal bases for such removal. In terms of permitting, the Executive Order emphasized that no new renewals, rights of way, permits, leases or loans for offshore wind shall be approved pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal wind leasing and permitting practices.

The new policy is a significant setback for offshore wind development, as it both curtails project progress, investor confidence, supply chain commitments and building up the future pipeline. However, the Executive Order does not halt all activity in the US, with installation ongoing on several projects, significant investments already committed, and FIDs taken on several projects, all having to be taken into account by the new administration when reviewing the future of existing leases. The question remains if the market conditions in the US leads to developers voluntarily halt projects with all the necessary approvals, looking to mature projects in other markets instead. We expect going forward to, at least, see more developers slow down projects in the early stages, like Total and RWE, in addition to supply chain commitments cancelled, with developers choosing to be focusing on other markets.