DOT and MARAD Pull Nearly $700M in Port and Wind Terminal Grants
The efforts to detail the U.S. offshore wind power industry are continuing with the US Department of Transportation and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) terminating and withdrawing nearly $700 million in grants made by the Biden administration for wind ports and terminals. In total, they identified 12 offshore wind grants and project selections in discretionary grant programs to be canceled.
The press statement references “doomed offshore wind projects,” saying the funding will be prioritized toward restoring America’s maritime dominance. They report that DOT and MARAD are refocusing on “rebuilding America’s shipbuilding capacity, unleashing more reliable, traditional forms of energy, and utilizing the nation’s bountiful natural resources.”
DOT has withdrawn one project from the Nationally Significant Freight and Highways Projects program, saving they report roughly $427 million. MARAD has withdrawn six projects, retracting $177 million, and terminated six projects in the Port Infrastructure Development Program, saving roughly $75 million. It totals $679 million in grants.
“The Trump administration is weakening our country’s national security and destroying good-paying jobs by pulling critical funding designed to update our aging maritime infrastructure," said Liz Burdock, CEO of Oceantic Network, a nonprofit supporting offshore wind and ocean energy. "Offshore wind port development upgrades facilities and capabilities that serve multiple industries; however, by selectively limiting infrastructure investments and removing mandated agreements in energy and shipyards, the administration is stalling essential development that delivers on shared priorities of national security and energy dominance, and signals to the investment community the U.S. is not safe place for investment."
The largest project included in the list is California’s Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind, which loses roughly $427 million in grants. The list also includes major wind projects including the Salem Wind Port in Massachusetts which was terminated at a saving of roughly $33.8 million, the Norfolk (Virginia) Offshore Wind Logistics Port ($39 million), Sparrows Point (Maryland) Steel Marshalling Port ($47 million), New Jersey’s Wind Port at Paulsboro ($20 million), Arthur Kill (New York) Terminal ($48 million) and the Redwood (California) Marine Terminal ($8.7 million). It also includes $10.5 million for the Bridgeport Port Authority (Connecticut) for the Operations and Maintenance Wind Port Project.
The Port of Davisville (Rhode Island) loses $11.25 million. The Lake Erie Renewable energy project ($11 million), Radio Island Rail Improvements (North Carolina) loses $1.7 million, and Portsmouth Marine Terminal (Virginia) loses $20 million.
The statement says that, where possible, funding from these projects will be "recompeted" to address critical port upgrades and other core infrastructure needs of the United States.
“Wasteful wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg bent over backwards to use transportation dollars for their Green New Scam agenda while ignoring the dire needs of our shipbuilding industry.”
The accusations from Duffy and the Trump administration ignore the extensive investments made by the offshore wind industry into shipbuilding and the revitalization of ports such as Salem, Bridgeport, Norfolk, and Portsmouth. In 2023, President Joe Biden highlighted that companies had announced 18 offshore wind shipbuilding projects as well as investments of nearly $3.5 billion across 12 manufacturing facilities and 13 ports to strengthen the American offshore wind supply chain. The vessels ranged from the first Jones Act-compliant installation vessels to SOVs and crew transfer vessels. They were being built at shipyards ranging from Florida to Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Many of the projects went to smaller shipyards to build crew transfer vessels. Among the large projects were SOVs built by Edison Chouest Offshore in Louisiana and Fincantieri Bay in Wisconsin. Seatrium AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, is completing the massive turbine installation vessel Charybdis, the first of its kind in the United States, for Dominion, and Hanwha Philly Shipyard recently floated a rock installation vessel being built for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company.