Construction has resumed on four offshore wind mega-projects after they survived a near fatal attack by Donald Trump’s administration thanks to rulings by federal judges. These are being seen as victories for clean energy amid a wider war being waged on it by the Trump administration.

The wind farms are considered critical by grid planners as America faces an energy affordability crisis. Together, the four projects will contribute nearly five gigawatts of energy to the east coast, enough to power 3.5 million homes.

In December, the Trump administration issued an order halting the construction of five offshore wind projects along the east coast, citing “reasons of national security”. On 9 January, during a White House meeting with oil and gas executives, the president said: “My goal is to not let any windmill be built. They’re losers.”

But in mid-January, federal judges rejected the administration’s claims and allowed construction to resume on four of the five projects. Work began immediately on Vineyard Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Empire Wind 1 and Revolution Wind. A fifth project, Sunrise Wind, is also fighting the stop work order and has a court hearing on Monday that industry experts believe will have a positive outcome.

Judges across different jurisdictions ruled against the Trump administration. “This is a broad rejection of the administration’s arguments,” said John Carlson, the senior north-east regional policy manager for the climate nonprofit Clean Air Task Force.

The stop-work order argued that wind turbines could interfere with military radar, but Carlson said it was a pretext to undermine wind power. “All these projects already went through very significant national security reviews,” he said.

“He’s losing in court, and I think he will continue losing in court. But that’s not the entire playing field,” Carlson noted.

To the wind industry, the court rulings are bittersweet. Trump may be losing the court battle against offshore projects already under construction, but he has succeeded in causing a nosedive in new projects, leaving the industry and its allies longing for the day he leaves office.

“This is not the end of what has been an absolute war on wind from the Trump administration,” said Kris Ohleth, director of the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, a nonpartisan offshore‑wind advocacy group. “We’re happy to have the win [in court], but in the broader context, we are a very challenged industry right now.”

Critical energy source

Experts see offshore wind as a critical energy source for north-eastern states. Data centers are pushing up power bills, and offshore wind offers an environmentally-friendly solution to increased energy demand. Grid operators such as ISO New England note that these projects are vital for winter reliability when other fuel sources are often constrained.

On the east coast, wind is the only renewable resource that can be deployed at scale fast enough to meet science-driven emissions reductions targets. “States in the north-east have climate targets that are relatively ambitious for this country, and there simply isn’t another clean resource that can fill the need,” said Carlson.

While it has been observed that Trump’s dislike of wind began a decade ago after he lost a legal battle against a wind farm near his golf resort in Scotland, he hasn’t been consistent on the issue. During his first presidency, his administration actually supported offshore wind, before turning against it in 2019.

Studies from Brown University and the Center for American Progress have linked growing local opposition to a network of oil-and-gas-funded groups. One such group successfully petitionedDoug Burgum, the interior secretary, to issue the December stop-work orders.

The fossil fuel-funded disinformation campaigns and stop work orders are not only contributing to the energy affordability crisis, but also undermining America’s permitting process, Ohleth said: “It’s completely invalidating the stability there used to be for building in the United States, turning [it] into a cartel system, where you need to please the powers at the top to build something.”

Policy whiplash in the US has sent the wind industry into a temporary coma.

Following the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashed tax credits, BloombergNEF expects only 6.1 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2035. This is a big drop from pre-election projections of 39 gigawatts in the same period after Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act spurred wind project approvals with clean energy tax credits.

“While the rulings remove near-term legal barriers for specific projects, we do not expect new projects to start construction until there is a fundamental shift in the US policy and regulatory environment,” BNEF energy specialist Atin Jain told the Guardian.

Trump has created risk and uncertainty for the industry that makes it harder to bring projects to fruition. “But I don’t think that means he’s necessarily winning,” Carlson said. “That just means we need to be very thoughtful and innovative in how we move forward.”

Looking forward to 2029

Experts are already looking forward to 2029. “We are all counting on the fact that there will be a president in office – it could even be a Republican – who doesn’t find offshore wind so repugnant,” Ohleth said.

In the meantime, the industry is turning to friendly states, who are the new leaders on clean energy. “We are working with them on transmission reforms, procurement reform, permitting updates, ports and vessel strategy,” Ohleth said. “When the next administration comes in, we will be ready.”

Some projects, such as Vineyard Wind, are already supplying power. Others, like Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, will be completed this year.

Ohleth expects the Trump administration to continue throwing obstacles at offshore wind. “It’s been one battle after another. But I but I’m confident that we will win the war,” she said.