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\n\tPresident Donald Trump\u2019s bizarre war on offshore wind is getting worse \u2014 and it\u2019s screwing\u00a0 workers and anyone who uses electricity. In the past year, Trump\u2019s policies have resulted in the loss of more than half of the planned power set to come from offshore wind, according to a new report by the Energy Industries Council released last week. People all across the country are facing relentlessly skyrocketing energy prices, with average electricity bills in July up 9.5 percent from just one year ago. Rising energy costs were a key issue influencing voters in elections this month and are expected to again play an outsized role in the crucial 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump has never been shy about his deep-seated hatred of offshore wind, calling it \u201cpathetic\u201d and \u201ccheap\u201d in his recent address to the United Nations and even claiming that the noise from windmills causes cancer (it doesn\u2019t). On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order halting new offshore wind leasing and directing the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a review to consider terminating or amending existing leases. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill includes a bevy of billions in bonuses to the fossil fuel industry, while gutting tax breaks and incentives for wind and solar.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring one of the hottest August\u2019s on record this summer, Trump put his campaign into overdrive, slashing federal funding on a dozen offshore wind projects, issuing stop-work-orders, and withdrawing leases. Trump\u2019s hit list includes offshore wind projects slated for Maryland, where electricity bills were 55 percent higher this summer than five years ago. In Baltimore, electricians are among a coalition of workers who are fighting back, preparing for the \u201cGreen Workforce of the Future,\u201d and defending offshore wind.<\/p>\n
\n\tRico Albacarys is the political director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 24 union in Baltimore. Together with several other local unions, business owners, elected officials, and environmental and climate justice groups, Local 24 is part of a coalition working to save offshore wind, viewing it as a key means of protecting good-paying jobs and increasing affordability. \u201cOffshore wind is a big deal for us locally,\u201d Albacarys says.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tOn Halloween, Albacarys led me on a tour of the union\u2019s Apprenticeship and Training Facility in Baltimore. Over 600 trainees a year enter the facility, passing each day under a large forest green banner reading, \u201cGreen Workforce of the Future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlbacarys is a youthful 41 years old with a manicured black mustache and beard giving off strong Carin Le\u00f3n vibes. Born in Puerto Rico, his family moved to Baltimore when he was two years old and he has remained ever since, now raising his own young family here. After working in restaurants and a printing press, he trained to become a journeyman electrician and member of Local 24.<\/p>\n
\n\tHis good looks helped land him in a national TV commercial for the union six years ago, part of a campaign to attract young people in search of a career that will provide a stable, middle-class life for them and their families. The ad features Albacarys\u2019 two young children (he now has three), two dogs, and his wife, Lauren. He notes how many young people are drowning in debt and how \u201cIBEW is the right choice\u201d to a brighter future.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt this training facility, Local 24 is preparing apprentices for what they still believe to be the job growth sectors of the future: solar and wind, including offshore wind projects off the coast of Maryland. The union released a press release in 2023 hailing that it is \u201con the leading edge of the growth potential of offshore wind power,\u201d with the help of a $2 million federal grant and a new Maryland state law promoting offshore wind. The grant was part of billions of federal dollars appropriated by Congress under the Biden administration for unions, companies, colleges, nonprofit organizations and others to train workers to build renewable energy projects and repair aging infrastructure \u2014 money the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have largely repealed.<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tThe training facility had its largest incoming class on record this year, Albacarys tells me, and a few days before my tour, more than 90 new members were sworn in to Local 24.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou may think, what does this have to do with clean energy?\u201d Albacarys asks as he ushers me into the training facility\u2019s high-voltage cable splicing lab. \u201cThis is a really important component for offshore wind turbines,\u201d he explains, demonstrating how apprentices get hands-on learning with different techniques for working on the cables that power turbines. \u201cWe apply voltage to make sure it works properly and doesn\u2019t, you know, explode,\u201d Albacarys adds.<\/p>\n
\n\tStudents can move on to receive Global Wind Organization training, or at least that\u2019s the plan. The higher level training costs over $2,000 per person and certification lasts for only two years.<\/p>\n
\n\tTrump\u2019s effort to squash offshore wind complicates things. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to thread the needle between when do we start training folks so we have enough people trained, and not starting to train them too early so they have to get re-certified before they actually are able to work on the turbine,\u201d Albacarys explains.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 2023, the Department of Transportation awarded a $47 million workforce development grant to support an offshore wind manufacturing and logistics hub in Baltimore, one of 12 similar hubs that received funding across the country. Energy developer US Wind plans to build the Baltimore hub, named Sparrows Point Steel, along with more than 100 wind turbines off Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore. The project is estimated to power approximately 700,000 homes. Maryland approved the project, which secured federal permits in December. In June, it received its most recent permit from the Maryland Department of Environment.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut in August, the Trump administration pulled the $47 million award and then announced its intention to revoke the project\u2019s federal permits. Multiple lawsuits are pending as a judge considers the administration\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe \u201cYes to Wind!\u201d press conference hosted by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) in Baltimore, Maryland, on Oct. 31, 2025. <\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Antonia Juhasz<\/p>\n \n\tIBEW\u2019s electricians are among many workers set to benefit from the project that are committed to seeing it through to completion. At the union\u2019s headquarters across the parking lot from the training facility, I met Jim Strong with the United Steelworkers Union. Strong handed me his card, which bears an unusual title for a steelworker: \u201cOffshore Wind Sector Assistant.\u201d Strong is there to speak at a press conference hosted by IBEW in support of the Maryland project and to kick off a week of similar \u201cYes to Wind!\u201d events taking place in a dozen states November 15-23. Heavy winds forced the press conference indoors. Other local sponsors include the Ironworkers Local 5 and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Union District Council 51.<\/p>\n \n\tStrong explains that crews will be retrofitting the former historic Bethlehem Steel Plant as the site of the new offshore wind hub. There they\u2019ll produce \u201cmonopiles,\u201d the ocean-floor bases to which the turbine towers will be secured, and stage towers and blades before moving to offshore construction sites.<\/p>\n \n\tBethlehem Steel was known as \u201cthe beast of the east,\u201d Strong tells me. \u201cWe had 33,000 members working there at one point.\u201d It was the largest steel production facility in the world in the late 1950s, overtaking U.S. Steel.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Bethlehem Steel shut down in 2012, it \u201cwas a very emotional day,\u201d Strong recalls. \u201cI spoke on behalf of the steel workers when it happened. We had history and now we have a future with the return of steel workers here. So, this is a big deal for our union.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe site was also the source of persistent heavy pollution, harming workers and the historically Black nearby community of Turner Station. \u201cIt has affected our recreation, quality of life, and health,\u201d Gloria Nelson, president of Turner Station Conservation Teams, told the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in 2021. \u201cWe had residents coming out of the water bleeding, with sores. We\u2019ve had high rates of cancer and respiratory conditions.\u201d The site has since gone through remediation and was designated a Super Fund site during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n \n\tTurner Station Conservation Teams is among other local environmental justice and community organizations who spent decades fighting to clean up the site that now backs the wind project, eager for the transition to green energy. The site will no longer be used to produce steel, but instead for assembling the steel and other components of turbines.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs health care workers, we know that clean energy saves lives,\u201d Ricarra Jones, political director of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union, who was unable to attend the press conference, said in a statement. \u201cReducing air pollution means fewer asthma attacks, fewer kids in emergency rooms, and healthier communities across Maryland. Offshore wind is the prescription our state needs for a cleaner, more resilient, and more affordable energy future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tStrong calls Trump\u2019s actions, \u201cdisappointing,\u201d noting, \u201che ran on jobs, manufacturing, and steel.\u201d Nonetheless, Strong assures that the project is moving forward. \u201cEventually we think that wiser people want to take credit for bringing steel back to Sparrows Point.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re fighting back,\u201d U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) tells me after speaking at the press conference. In just the last 48 hours, he says, Maryland\u2019s attorney general filed an amicus brief on behalf of US Wind. \u201cClearly, getting rid of enough wind to supply hundreds of thousands of homes is going to drive prices higher, that\u2019s simple supply and demand,\u201d Van Hollen says. \u201cThe bottom line here is that the fact that the Trump administration canceled those funds did not cancel the overall project.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTrump sat in the White House in August and declared, \u201cWe don\u2019t allow windmills and we don\u2019t want solar panels,\u201d as if the entire nation, including its offshore waters, were one of his private resorts rather than the property of the American people. Three days later, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cut almost $700 million in funding for 12 offshore wind projects, including the $47 million to Sparrows Point Steel. One project in Humboldt Bay, California, lost out on more than $426 million. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum questioned if using federal lands for wind and solar projects is even permissible under the law and began issuing stop-work orders and attempting to withdraw leases for existing offshore wind operations.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis summer Maryland had more heat deaths than we\u2019ve had in a decade,\u201d Brittany Baker, the Maryland Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, tells me. Fossil fuel pollution is the primary source of the worsening climate crisis that is making extreme weather events, including heat waves, more frequent, intense, deadly, and costly. \u201cReducing greenhouse gas emissions is incredibly important,\u201d Baker says. It can simultaneously secure long-term jobs, revitalize Baltimore, and help achieve energy independence.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Biden administration set a goal of getting 30 gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2030, enough for around 10 million homes, with the potential of creating 77,000 jobs. In the first two years following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the domestic offshore wind industry invested more than $6.8 billion in offshore wind manufacturing facilities and ports, as well as 25 vessels and a transmission substation, according to the Department of Energy. Just the expectation of this influx of new electrical power coming online helped drive down electricity costs.<\/p>\n \n\tTrump has set out to gut as much of these operations as possible. The administration issued a stop-work order on the $5 billion Revolution Wind project in Rhode Island, which is nearly complete with dozens of turbines already erected and others staged at a nearby pier. The order left an estimated 20-person construction crew stranded at sea, according to The Wall Street Journal<\/em>. The project is capable of supplying power to more than 350,000 homes. A federal judge temporarily overturned Trump\u2019s order in September, while the administration continues to fight in court.<\/p>\n \n\tThe administration is also seeking to revoke approval of the last major federal permit needed for the SouthCoast Wind project offshore Nantucket. The project, which has not yet begun construction, includes 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Earlier this month, a federal court judge allowed the administration to reconsider its approval of the permit.<\/p>\n \n\tLast week, New York state environmental regulators greenlit a methane gas pipeline considered by some critics to be an alleged quid-pro-quo between governor Kathy Hochul and Trump to let New York\u2019s Empire Wind offshore project proceed despite Trump\u2019s earlier efforts to kill it.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tParts of wind turbines sit at the State Pier in New London, Connecticut, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, ahead of a press conference held in response to the Trump administration\u2019s order to halt construction on the Revolution Wind project. <\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant\/Tribune News Service\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \n\tTrump\u2019s wind vendetta is most often attributed to his 2011 losing battle against a windfarm offshore one of his golf courses in Scotland. It could be a lasting chip on his shoulder that keeps him so irrationally and aggressively laser-focused on halting wind projects. Or it may simply be because most of these projects are located in federal waters and as such allow for a much greater role for the federal government than energy projects on state or private property.<\/p>\n \n\tOf course, Trump also loves fossil fuel companies. \u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing from President Trump right now is a tip of the hat to the Big Oil guys,\u201d Van Hollen says. \u201cThey don\u2019t like the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt is not lost on Johnny O, otherwise known as U.S. Congressman Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), that Trump is cutting federal support to green energy while simultaneously increasing subsidies and tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry. \u201cLet\u2019s eliminate those oil and gas subsidies\u201d he tells me. \u201cBecause what you\u2019re going to find is that, even without subsidies, clean energy is more cost effective and better for ratepayers.\u201d New research from asset management firm Lazard supports his conclusion, finding that wind and solar energy projects are less expensive to bring online than nearly all fossil fuel projects, even without federal tax incentives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tFor Olszewski, who describes growing up in the shadow of Baltimore\u2019s Bethlehem Steel, the transition off of fossil fuels is a \u201cclimate imperative, a cost of living imperative, and a jobs imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe problem for Trump is that his policies are contributing to rising electricity costs and job loss when most Americans prefer wind and solar to fossil fuels, according to Pew Research Center, and as global momentum is moving away from fossil fuel dependence to renewables.<\/p>\n \n\tTrump has reduced both current and planned supply of renewable energy, which is increasing electricity costs across the country. He\u2019s also increasing demand for energy by fast-tracking AI and other data centers. Not only do these centers consume enormous amounts of energy, but just the expectation that they\u2019ll potentially come online is increasing the expectation of future demand, which is increasing prices that utilities are passing on to consumers today.<\/p>\n \n\tFossil fuels are more expensive and far less efficient than renewable sources of energy and doubling down on them raises prices. Trump\u2019s efforts to revitalize the coal industry is saddling consumers with the costs of swaddling an expensive and dying industry. By increasing exports of methane gas (better known as \u201cnatural gas,\u201d it is composed almost entirely of methane, while the misnomer \u201cnatural\u201d misleads people to think it\u2019s \u201cclean\u201d or \u201crenewable,\u201d which it is not), he\u2019s reducing supply and increasing prices that utilities are passing on to consumers, finds the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWind power, by contrast, is estimated to have cut at least $137 billion from energy costs in the UK since 2010 by being cheaper and more efficient to provide than gas, according to research by the University College London. So, it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that the topic on which Republicans express the most dissatisfaction with their party (after health care) is environmental and climate policy.<\/p>\n \n\tFor IBEW, energy jobs have driven record membership growth across the country, including in the fossil fuel sector, \u201cbut the sustained campaign by the Trump administration against renewable projects has turned potential into disappointment, particularly in the offshore wind industry,\u201d the union notes in a press release. \u201cUnfortunately, the Trump administration\u2019s actions targeting renewable energy projects extends beyond wind generation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tClimate Power estimates that more than 158,000 jobs have been lost or stalled in the renewable energy sector in the past year.<\/p>\n \n\tGrowth in clean energy jobs is outpacing fossil fuels, which, despite historic production, is shedding workers. The U.S. is producing more oil and gas than at any other time in history while at the same time slashing hundreds of thousands of jobs. It takes half as many workers to produce one barrel of oil today than it did a decade ago. In that same time, the U.S oil and gas industry has shed 20 percent of its workforce totaling some 252,000 workers. If we follow the industry model of generously assuming jobs also supported by fossil fuels, then roughly 2 million-plus jobs nationwide have been lost due to shrinking oil and gas employment over the past decade. This trend is set to continue.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe need to build things,\u201d Albacarys said in a January podcast with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. \u201cWe very much want to build data centers. We also would love to build solar generation. We would like to build offshore wind. We want to build things in Maryland.\u201d Like United Steelworkers, IBEW supports an \u201call of the above\u201d energy strategy and has members that work in fossil fuels. They want to support those workers and ensure a safe and just transition to renewables.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe built this,\u201d Mike McHale proudly boasts as he stands beside Albacarys under the \u201cGreen Energy Jobs of the Future\u201d banner. McHale is the business manager for IBEW Local 24. He explains that the Baltimore training facility I toured is self-funded with money coming directly from the payrolls of union members. There\u2019s a facility pretty much like it in most every major city in the country, he tells me. He then removes his IBEW sweatshirt to reveal a colorful Hawaiian shirt similarly emblazoned with the IBEW logo underneath. \u201cIt\u2019s Hawaiian shirt Friday!\u201d he says. \u201cWe did it when I was a kid and then we stopped for a while, now all the kids are doing it again.\u201d McHale, now in his late 50s, started off with IBEW when he was just a teenager recently kicked out of college and looking for a career. He found a family.<\/p>\n \n\tHis pride in the new generation of IBEW members, and in Albacarys standing at his side in particular, is palpable. Albacarys founded IBEW\u2019s Reach Out and Engage Next Generation Electrical Workers committee \u2014 an initiative to get young members more involved in the union, and he\u2019s shared his hope to attract other Latinos and people of color to get involved or seek out apprenticeships.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tIt\u2019s a far different image from that being advanced by Trump\u2019s Department of Labor. Its newly launched \u201cProject Firewall\u201d social media campaign is pure 1950\u2019s-inspired propaganda that depicts a seemingly exclusively white Christian American workforce.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re not here to dwell in the past,\u201d McHale says. \u201cRather look to the future, a bright future powered in part by offshore wind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t\u201cWe Don\u2019t Allow Windmills\u201d<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n
\n\t\tHigher Prices, Fewer Jobs<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\u201cWe Built This\u201d<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n
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