September 23, 2020 — There are nine offshore wind projects currently on the drawing board for the Atlantic coast. Northeast governors need those wind turbines to help meet their states’ clean energy goals, and are competing for the land-based businesses that will supply the new industry — and could bring tens of thousands of jobs to the region. Industry analysts estimate that investment in U.S. offshore wind could hit $108 billion by 2030.
But this blue-sky vision has one large uncertainty: Donald Trump.
“I never understood wind,” the president said last December. “You know I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody. I know it’s very expensive.”
Trump says windmills, as he calls them, are also noisy, ugly and cause cancer.
But as the election approaches there are signs the Trump administration’s position on wind energy could be shifting.