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A few years ago, offshore wind was on its way to becoming a booming industry in the U.S. Companies were leasing huge tracts of ocean for future wind farms. On shore, states, businesses and communities began investing hundreds of millions of dollars in building the support infrastructure that the industry would need well into the future. Construction got underway.
But those dreams of economic development and good American jobs are now at risk.
In a highly unusual move, the Trump administration, which has been trying to halt leases and permitting for wind farms, has started offering to pay wind energy developers hundreds of millions of dollars to abandon their offshore wind plans and invest in fossil fuel projects instead. The companies behind three U.S. wind farm projects have agreed to the terms, while still investing in the growing global offshore wind industry.
So what does that mean for Americans who were counting on that electricity, and the jobs and economic development it promised?
We asked Christopher Niezrecki of UMass Lowell, Ben Link of Johns Hopkins University and Zoe Getman-Pickering of UMass Amherst, three experts on offshore wind and sustainable energy. As they explain, the economic impact goes far deeper than just the $2 billion in U.S. taxpayer-funded buyouts.
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