Four northeastern governors demand Trump Administration reverse wind project suspensions

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and three other northeastern governors are demanding that the Trump administration reverse its decision to halt wind projects on the Eastern Seaboard.

Healey, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee laid out their demands Wednesday in a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

Citing unspecified "national security risks," the administration this week suspended federal leases on five wind farms under construction in the northeast, including Vineyard Wind, which is already producing power off the Massachusetts coast.

"Administrative actions, such as those you have taken here, cannot be based on
undisclosed, secret rationales – especially not when thousands of jobs and vital energy projects are at stake. Yet your letter obliquely alludes to undisclosed 'new classified information' regarding 'adversary technologies' as the reason for this sudden reversal," the governors' letter states. "We demand an immediate classified briefing for our cleared personnel to review this supposed evidence and all information related to this purported rationale."

In their letter, the governors say the projects have already undergone extensive reviews and received approvals, including by the Department of Defense. They note that earlier this month a federal court rejected the administration's effort to halt offshore wind development, calling it an "arbitrary and capricious" violation of the law.

The suspensions are the latest in a campaign against wind energy by the Trump Administration. President Trump has called wind farms ugly and expensive, and years ago he tried to block one within view of his golf course in Scotland.

On Wednesday the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General said Vineyard Wind can continue producing power under the suspension order.

With reporting from WBUR's Anthony Brooks and Cici Yu.