Trump administration withdraws funding for Maryland offshore wind project
The Trump administration has withdrawn funding for a Maryland offshore wind project.
In a statement Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Secretary Sean Duffy terminated and withdrew $679 million from what the department called "doomed" offshore wind projects across the country.
Among the funding withdrawn was $47 million for the Sparrows Point Steel Marshalling Port Project, a plan to build a facility that would support U.S. Wind's Momentum Wind project.
The offshore wind project would include building 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City that can generate up to two gigawatts of offshore wind energy. The project would be able to power up to 718,000 homes in the region. It was the 10th commercial-scale wind project to be approved in the U.S.
Impact of withdrawing funding
The funding withdrawal did not cut money allocated for building the planned Ocean City turbines themselves, but instead revoked a $47 million federal grant that was intended to fund construction for a new steel fabrication facility, specifically equipped for producing materials for U.S. Wind's Ocean City turbine project.
The facility was once home to the world's largest steel plant, Bethlehem Steel, which closed its doors at Sparrows Point in 2012.
But in 2021, U.S. Wind and Tradepoint Atlantic, which owns the property, signed a long-term lease agreement.
Trump administration challenges offshore wind project
Friday's update comes just days after the Trump administration said it planned to revoke a permit for Maryland's offshore wind project in court documents.
In a motion, the Department of Justice asked the court to pause a lawsuit — filed by the town of Ocean City — that alleges the U.S. Department of the Interior violated federal laws, including the Coastal Zone Management Act, when it issued a Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for the project.
After the motion, House Republicans in Maryland applauded the Trump administration's plan to revoke U.S. Wind's offshore wind farm permit, calling the project a "bad idea that was never going to come to fruition."
In late January, President Trump signed an executive order that called for a temporary halt to the issuing of new federal leases, permits and loans for offshore wind developments.
