Energy Musings - August 7, 2025

Activity involving the approval processes for renewable energy and offshore wind projects is undergoing extensive reviews. Petitions have been filed to further the review pressures.

Renewable Energy And Offshore Wind Challenged

The end of July was a busy time for the Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. It was also a noteworthy period for the offshore wind industry. We doubt many people were even aware.

On July 29^th, Secretary Burgum signed an order to end the preferential treatment for unreliable, foreign-controlled renewable energy projects. It sets in motion internal Department of the Interior (DOI) reviews of renewable energy policies and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) actions and compliance with existing energy and environmental laws and regulations. The order was followed three days later with another order covering how federal energy resources are managed and protected environmentally. Again, it directed the agency’s staff to review the government’s processes. Finally, a group of fishing companies filed an administrative petition asking the DOI to rescind Vineyard Wind 1’s Construction and Operation Permit. And a few days later, three environmental groups filed an administrative petition over the approval of Empire Wind by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The final offshore wind industry event received little publicity, mainly due to the media's ignorance of the issue. On Saturday night, August 2^nd, a 3.0 scale earthquake occurred in New Jersey (star on map below) but was felt in New York City and Connecticut. No injuries or damage were reported. According to geologists, small earthquakes in this area are felt every 2-3 years. Another earthquake occurred in April 2024, when New York City and New Jersey were rocked by a rare 4.8 magnitude earthquake, which officials said was one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century.

According to U.S. Geological Survey records, New York City had experienced 19 earthquakes rated 2.4 or greater through April 2024. The December 19, 1737, and August 10, 1884, earthquakes, both measuring 5.2, caused considerable damage to structures in the city. However, the area is considered to be a low-seismicity region.

New Jersey locations near NYC have been home to the most recent earthquakes.

Offshore New York Harbor is a fault line in the New York Bight area (see map below). That line crosses through the location where BOEM approved the construction of the 130-turbine, 820-megawatt Empire Wind project. It involves pounding the turbine foundations into the ocean floor, in what is known to be a fault area. The existence of the fault and the potential seismic risk of pounding steel posts into the ocean floor were not considered in the BOEM approval process. Could adding pressure to a geologic fault potentially trigger an earthquake? We do not know, but suspect it could. The reason why this potential issue was never considered during Empire Wind’s approval process should be examined during the DOI reviews mandated by Secretary Burgum.

As we write this article, the news has just reported another 2.7-magnitude earthquake in the New York City/New Jersey area. It is not unusual for there to be aftershocks from a large earthquake as the earth releases the pent-up energy. It is possible this latest shaking is just such an aftershock. The 2024 earthquake was followed by two weeks of multiple aftershocks. With these two recent earthquakes, the USGS total of earthquakes greater than 2.4 magnitude in the New York City area is up to 21.

The New York Bight Fault Zone and fault line are home to Empire Wind.

As mentioned above, Empire Wind is the target of a lawsuit by three environmental groups over harassment of marine mammals. The three groups - Save the East Coast Inc., Protect Our Coast–Long Island, and Green Oceans – have filed a petition seeking to have NOAA abrogate its prior marine mammal harassment authorization that allowed Empire Wind’s construction to move forward.

The groups claim that new research shows that the permitted takings will have more than a negligible impact on marine mammals, especially the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Takings refers to the quotas assigned to categories of mammals and fish that can be harassed and even killed during the performance of seismic surveys and the construction of wind farms. Depending on their populations, NOAA takings can run into the thousands of disturbed creatures.

NOAA’s position is that all the harassment allowed is harmless. However, new research by Professor Apostolos Gerasoulis, the president of Save the East Coast, Inc., showing that this is not the case, was presented to NOAA last December, but they chose to ignore him.

The petitioners write, “Our petition provides robust scientific evidence demonstrating that offshore wind activities —notably seismic sonar surveys and pile-driving — pose significant and immediate threats to endangered marine mammals, especially the endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) and protected humpback whales.”

They further noted that “the contemporaneous pile driving of multiple projects from Virginia to New England is placing the NARW at imminent risk of devolving closer toward extinction. These takes are not merely behavioral disruption; the impact includes injury and death.”

The administrative petition is in addition to the lawsuit filed against Secretary of the Interior Burgum, BOEM, Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind, and its 70%-owner, the State of Norway. Besides raising issues over the approval’s compliance with applicable laws and policies, a critical issue is Norway’s participation in Empire Wind. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations are allowed. However, the question of whether a U.S. subsidiary of a company owned or controlled by a foreign government has never been adjudicated. Do our laws envision allowing foreign governments to participate in the U.S. energy system directly?

The other administrative petition deals with BOEM’s approval process of Vineyard Wind. It provides a clear roadmap to the violations of policies and the ignoring of requirements mandated under the law. Unbeknownst to the petitioners, their administrative petition was filed on the same day Secretary Burgum issued his first order. Upon reviewing the two documents, one is amused by the similarity between the petition roadmap and the list of actions and policy reviews mandated by the Secretary’s order. It was almost as if the two parties had collaborated, but we have been assured that did not happen.

The legal and administrative battles are just beginning. It will likely be weeks before we hear more about the next steps in these matters. In the meantime, DOI officials are entering an active period as they review and study BOEM's policies, rules, laws, and actions in approving renewable energy projects, furthering the Joseph Biden presidential agenda. Many of these shortcuts and favorable actions were to ensure projects were financeable and could commence operations quickly to meet renewable energy goals, and for developers to access federal subsidies.

Order No. 3437, the July 29 order, Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources in Department Decision Making, finds that the Biden administration prioritized an “ideological agenda that was tailored specifically towards climate extremism and the development of intermittent energy.” It cites the Bureau of Land Management reducing land rentals and capacity fees by roughly 80% below fair market value for wind and solar projects. BOEM also failed to hold any oil and gas lease sales between 2Q of 2021 and 3Q of 2022 despite statutory mandates to hold them quarterly. Furthermore, the total average time to process drilling permits doubled from 150 days to 298 days. These various actions confirm the ideological agenda favoring renewable energy over fossil fuels.

The Order further found that BOEM failed to interpret laws in accordance with their single best reading, contrary to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron Deference policy for how government agencies were allowed to deal with legislation that did not clearly spell out required actions. It cited the DOI Solicitor’s opinion issued during the Biden administration that allowed officials to balance one statutory requirement in the approval process against others rather than ensuring that each requirement is satisfied. BOEM, therefore, was able to approve offshore wind projects after allowing them to meet selected criteria while minimizing others, despite the statutory language requiring that all requirements be satisfied.

From these findings, the Secretary directed each Assistant Secretary to review regulations, guidance, policies, and practices dealing with land use and site authorization, environmental and wildlife permits and analyses, processes related to Tribal and Native lands, commercial and financial authorizations, and a host of other actions and authorizations. These assistants have 30-45 days to complete their reviews and report the conclusions to the Secretary.

This directive was followed by Order No. 3438 on August 1, Managing Federal Energy Resources and Protecting the Environment. It sets forth the various requirements under current federal legislation regarding the use of Federal lands. It points out that under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the DOI’s regulatory agencies – BOEM and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – should consider energy projects’ energy capacity density in their decision-making, especially when reasonable alternatives exist.

The Order notes that “capacity density is defined as the nameplate generation capacity of an energy project multiplied by its projected capacity factor, the product of which is then divided by the total acres of the project area.” There is a wide discrepancy between the capacities of dispatchable energy (fossil fuel) and non-dispatchable energy (solar and wind). The data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory studies was set out in a table attached to Secretary Burgum’s order.

Solar and wind capacity density is minuscule.

August is traditionally when the federal government shuts down for vacation. While Congress is suspended, activity within the bureaucracy will be ramping up to comply with the timetables outlined in Secretary Burgum’s two orders. We do not know how quickly the DOI, BOEM, and NOAA will respond to the administrative petitions. We hope they will respond quickly, indicating a willingness to consider them and examine the documented evidence each has provided. We are also awaiting the responses to the Empire Wind lawsuit filing. We sense all of these developments will explode, much like the earth releasing pent-up pressure through earthquakes or volcanoes. Be ready for an explosion at the end of August, or maybe earlier.