{"id":45801,"date":"2025-12-30T19:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45801"},"modified":"2025-12-30T19:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:28:10","slug":"watchdog-warns-trump-and-burgums-halting-of-offshore-wind-projects-is-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/30\/watchdog-warns-trump-and-burgums-halting-of-offshore-wind-projects-is-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog Warns Trump and Burgum\u2019s Halting of Offshore Wind Projects Is Illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"President<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on October 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBurgum\u2019s actions on offshore wind appear to be motivated by the personal financial interests of those in the administration, not our collective national interests.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 29, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week after the US Department of the Interior said it was immediately halting five offshore wind projects in the interest of \u201cnational security,\u201d a watchdog group told congressional committees Monday that the move is \u201cnot legally defensible\u201d and raises \u201csignificant\u201d questions about conflicts of interest concerning a top DOI official\u2019s investments in fossil gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timothy Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), wrote<\/a> to the top members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the House Committee on Natural Resources regarding the pause on projects off the coasts of Virginia<\/a>, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts\u2014projects that account for billions of dollars in investment, employ thousands of people, and generate sustainable energy for roughly 2.5 million homes and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Trump<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump Continues \u2018War Against Renewables\u2019 With Halt of Five Offshore Wind Farms<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The announcement<\/a> made by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last week pertained to \u201cfive vague, perfunctory, cookie-cutter orders\u201d halting the projects, wrote Whitehouse, but PEER is concerned that the orders were issued to evade the Congressional Review Act (CRA), under which the action to halt the projects likely constitutes a \u201cmajor rule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitehouse explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Under the CRA, a rule that meets any one of three criteria (an annual effect on the economy of $100,000,000 or more; a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or in pertinent part significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, or innovation) is a major rule. Interior\u2019s pause likely meets all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a major rule under the CRA, the pause cannot take effect until at least 60 days after BOEM provides Congress the requisite notification and report under the CRA, which, according to GAO\u2019s database, has not yet occurred. Congress must use its oversight authority to unveil the truth and, as appropriate, and to enforce the rule of law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He said<\/a><\/a> in a statement that \u201cBurgum\u2019s move is designed to bypass all congressional and public input.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The CRA states that a rule is \u201cthe whole or a part of an agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press statements by the DOI and by Burgum last week were \u201cstatements of general applicability and imminent future effect, designed to implement policy,\u201d wrote Whitehouse, who also said the interior secretary embarked on \u201ca coordinated rollout with Fox News<\/em> entities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 22, Fox<\/em> anchor Maria Bartiromo asked<\/a> Burgum at 8:00 am Eastern, \u201cWhat next action did you want to tell us about this morning?\u201d Five minutes later, FoxNews.com<\/em> published its first story on Burgum\u2019s orders, citing a press release that had not yet been made public and including a quote from the secretary about the \u201cemerging national security risk\u201d posed by the offshore wind projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf last week\u2019s actions are allowed to stand, future presidents will have unchecked authority under the guise of national security to target federal leases related to entire disfavored energy industries for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burgum\u2019s announcement to Fox<\/em> came at least one to two hours before Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) acting Director Matthew Giacona provided the orders to the lessees running the five wind projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, wrote Whitehouse, \u201cBurgum\u2019s voluminous public comments in the hours and days since the pause further show the true purpose of Interior\u2019s singular action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe national security pretext quickly gives way to broad and spurious talking points about the \u2018Green New Scam,\u2019 how \u2018wind doesn\u2019t blow 24-7\u2019 (evincing Burgum\u2019s seeming unfamiliarity with energy storage technologies), and unyielding promotion of liquified natural gas projects,\u201d wrote Whitehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the alleged illegality of Burgum\u2019s order, PEER pointed to Giacona\u2019s potential conflicts of interest with BOEM operations and specifically with halting wind projects. Giacona is a \u201cdiligent filer\u201d of financial disclosure forms required by the Ethics in Government Act, noted Whitehouse\u2014but those forms point to potential benefits he may reap from shutting down offshore wind infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giacona reported his purchase of interests in the United States<\/a> Natural Gas Fund (UNG) on September 16. The fund tracks daily price movements of \u201cnatural\u201d gas delivered at the Henry Hub in Louisiana and is subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccordingly, a government employee who has an interest in UNG also has a potential conflict of interest with the underlying holdings of UNG (currently primarily natural gas futures contracts at the Henry Hub),\u201d wrote Whitehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEER does not know whether Giacona continues to hold a financial interest in UNG or whether the offshore wind pause will have a \u201cdirect and predictable effect on a financial interest in UNG,\u201d but Whitehouse noted that Burgum and DIO have entwined the pause with the promotion of liquefied natural gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is disconcerting that Mr. Giacona temporarily had even a de minimis financial interest in natural gas futures while also leading the agency that manages the development of natural gas resources on the outer continental shelf,\u201d wrote Whitehouse, adding that Giacona also sold interests in the United States Oil<\/a> Fund on September 3, while overseeing BOEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on Giacona\u2019s investments, said Whitehouse, \u201cBurgum\u2019s actions on offshore wind appear to be motivated by the personal financial interests of those in the administration, not our collective national interests. This is another misguided step in transforming the federal government into a franchise of the fossil fuel industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn public lands across the United States, the Department of the Interior has tens of thousands of additional active leases related to oil, gas, wind, solar, and geothermal production and\u00a0mining<\/a>\u00a0for energy-related minerals,\u201d he added. \u201cIf last week\u2019s actions are allowed to stand, future presidents will have unchecked authority under the guise of national security to target federal leases related to entire disfavored energy industries for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on October 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images) \u201cBurgum\u2019s actions on offshore wind appear to be motivated by the personal financial interests of those in… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45801"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45802,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45801\/revisions\/45802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}