TV News LIES

Europe’s biggest offshore wind developer is taking the Trump administration to court over its decision to suspend work on a $5bn project on the north-east US coast.

Denmark’s Ørsted filed a legal challenge on Thursday against the White House’s decision 10 days ago to suspend the lease for its Revolution Wind site as part of a sweeping move halting all construction of offshore wind.

The attempted injunction is the latest in a series of legal volleys between the renewables industry and Donald Trump, whose administration has sought to block major offshore wind projects from moving ahead since his re-election.

Trump, a vocal supporter of the fossil fuel industry, opposes renewable energy, and wind in particular, saying he finds turbines ugly, costly and inefficient.

On 22 December, officials from the Department of the Interior suspended the leases for five large offshore wind projects that are under construction in US waters over unspecified “national security risks”.

A statement from Ørsted and its partner in the Revolution project, Skyborn Renewables, described the move as a violation of applicable law.

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The U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency order late Tuesday to keep an aging Colorado coal plant open, just one day before it was slated to close. 

The plant — Unit 1, part of Craig Station, in Moffat County — is now required to keep running until March 30, 2026. The order can also be extended. 

The move drew a furious response from the governor’s office and environmental groups, who contest whether an emergency even exists that would require the plant to stay open.

Governor Polis said the order would lead to a huge spike in costs to repair the plant, which may be borne by customers of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a cooperative operating the plant to deliver electricity to rural communities in Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado.

“This order will pass tens of millions in costs to Colorado ratepayers, in order to keep a coal plant open that is broken and not needed,” Polis said in a statement. 

“Ludicrously, the coal plant isn’t even operational right now, meaning repairs — to the tune of millions of dollars — just to get it running, all on the backs of rural Colorado ratepayers!”

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The Trump administration has said it is immediately pausing all leases for offshore wind farms already under construction, in the heaviest blow yet to an industry that the administration has relentlessly targeted throughout the year.

Trump’s Department of the Interior said that it was halting the building of five wind projects due to “national security risks”. The department said it would work with the US Department of Defense to mitigate the risk of the wind turbine towers creating radar interference called “clutter” that could in some way hamper the US military.

“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” said Doug Burgum, secretary of the interior. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.”

The halt will affect the Vineyard Wind 1 project off the coast of Massachusetts, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind in New York, Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind in Virginia.

All of the projects were reviewed and approved under Joe Biden’s administration, which found there were no undue national security concerns raised by the developments. Democrats have pointed to two assessments by the Pentagon of Revolution Wind that found the project “would not have adverse impacts to DoD missions in the area”.

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Two fossil-fuel billionaires with close ties to Donald Trump bought millions of shares in the company they co-founded just days after a meeting with senior White House officials, who then issued a key regulatory permit that helped expand the company’s fortunes in Europe.

Robert Pender, an energy lawyer, and Michael Sabel, a former investment banker, are the founders and co-chairs of Venture Global, a Virginia-based company that develops and operates liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals.

Sabel was among about 20 people who attended an event in April 2024 at Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, when he reportedly requested $1bn in campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry in return for favorable legislation. Venture Global was among the “top donors” to Trump’s inauguration, donating $1m, according to the Wall Street Journal.

On his first day back in the White House, Trump issued an executive order rolling back regulations to favor fossil fuel production, including LNG export licences, while revoking existing climate and clean energy policies.

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International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Friday that an IAEA team is “crisscrossing” Ukraine to assess the security of the country’s nuclear substations, as Russia continues to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The visit, which began on Dec. 1, will last until Dec. 12 and focus on more than 10 substations (essential nodes in the electrical grid related to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants) across the country – assessing damage, reviewing repair efforts, and making recommendations to strengthen energy resilience.

“These substations are essential for nuclear safety and security. They are absolutely indispensable for providing the electricity all nuclear power plants need for reactor cooling and other safety systems. They are also needed to distribute the electricity that they produce to households and industry,” Grossi said in Friday’s statement.

The IAEA said that it had made several such expert missions to Ukraine since September 2024, when the substations became “increasingly affected by the military conflict.”

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since its full-scale invasion, particularly in the cold season – regularly plunging thousands of people into freezing darkness.

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The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil and gas drilling off California’s and Florida’s coasts, setting the stage for a political showdown – including with Sunshine state Republicans who have largely opposed petroleum development in the Gulf of Mexico.

This announcement comes as the US petroleum industry, despite contending with low crude prices, has been pushing for an entree to additional offshore drilling areas. The industry’s move for increased access also marks an effort to increase jobs and US energy independence, according to the Associated Press.

The federal government has prohibited offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which extends from Florida shores to portions of Alabama, since 1995. The ban stemmed from worries about potential oil spills.

While California does have some offshore oil development, there have not been new leases in federal waters for nearly 30 years, the AP said.

A proposed schedule for petroleum leasing in federal waters includes up to 34 auctions from 2026 to 2031; these auctions include up to six sales off California’s coastline, 21 off of Alaska’s coastline, and two in the Gulf of Mexico’s eastern portion, Politico said. The sales in Alaska would reportedly include a region that has never had oil drilling.

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