US Wind: Trump has plans to ‘kill outright offshore wind projects’

US Wind, the Baltimore-based company behind plans to build a wind farm off the Delmarva coast, claims that a federal government plan to rescind permits for its project is a result of “political pressure” from President Donald Trump. 

In a counterclaim filed Wednesday in response to a federal lawsuit originally brought by Ocean City, Md., attorneys for US Wind said the Trump administration’s efforts to rescind its permits “are inextricably tied to a wider plan to hinder or kill outright offshore wind projects.”

In all, the competing claims are part of a volley of lawsuits that have plagued the ambitious energy project for more than a year. 

US Wind’s filing on Wednesday follows a request from U.S. attorneys asking the federal judge in Maryland to allow for a “voluntary remand” – which would send the permit approvals back to an administrative agency for reassessment.

A ruling on that request is pending. 

Should that remand go through, it could render Ocean City’s claims moot, as the permits being challenged would likely be pulled. Still, it is not immediately clear how a remand would impact US Wind’s counterclaim against the Trump administration. 

In a another filing on Thursday, US Wind responded to the government’s request to send the permits back to its agencies for a reevaluation as “baseless and prejudicial” to the company. 

The Trump administration has said it intends to undo the approvals by Sept. 12.

In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, a White House spokesman claimed that “offshore wind projects were given unfair, preferential treatment while the rest of the energy industry was hindered by burdensome regulations.”

US Wind declined to comment for this story. 

Headwinds for offshore wind

US Wind’s counterclaim is the latest development in an ongoing legal battle against the planned wind farm, which would bring more than 100 turbines nearly 12 miles off the coast of beach communities in Maryland and Delaware.  

The wind farm has been a subject of a years-long debate in the region that has sparked several lawsuits. Those include one filed by Sussex County resident Edward Bintz in February, as well as Ocean City’s lawsuit filed in October 2024. Both suits challenge aspects of US Wind’s offshore construction approvals, which were originally granted under the Biden administration. 

Separately, Sussex County Council hamstrung the project in December 2024 by denying the company’s application to connect high-voltage cables from the Indian River to a new substation adjacent to the Indian River Power Plant in Dagsboro.

That decision prompted a US Wind subsidiary to file an appeal. While the case is ongoing, it will also likely be declared moot. 

In June, Delaware’s legislature passed a bill to retroactively strip Sussex County of its ability to make land-use decisions on the property where the substation will sit. The law will go into effect early next year. 

During the final hours of the legislative session on June 30, Senate Republicans – who have opposed the offshore wind project  – tried to block passage of the bill by threatening to withhold votes for the state’s capital budget. Ultimately, Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise that delayed the implementation of the bill until next year in order to allow the legal challenges to play out.