Trump Finds New Way To Stop Clean Energy: "Security Concerns" Over Offshore Wind

The Trump administration's latest tack to stop offshore
wind generation is to claim "national security"
Not everyone is buying that argument. 

 The Trump administration has found a new excuse to halt his nemesis: offshore wind installations 

He hates "clean energy" and for some reason loves just LOVES oil and coal. 

He's put out all kinds of false narratives about wind turbines causing cancer, killing off all birds and, being unreliable because the wind doesn't always blow. Maybe he's never heard of batteries? 

Trump keeps losing court cases in which entities sue his administration over efforts to shut down the turbines. Now, we have the latest effort.  

Here's Fox New's lead on the report:

"President Donald Trump's Department of Interior announced on Monday that, effective immediately, leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects being constructed in the United States will be paused.

In a press release, DOI wrote that the pause is due to 'national security risks' identified by the Department of War in 'recently completed classified reports.'"

There were not many hints as to what those supposed security risks are. 

As an aside, Trump and Pete Hegseth want to call it the Department of War, but the legal name of the agency is still Department of Defense

Anyway. the Department of Interior gave these details, which aren't very detailed: 

"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."

Well, that word salad doesn't help much. 

The pause on offshore wind farms affect projects off the New England, New York and Virginia coasts

The Interior Department referenced unclassified reports that large offshore turbine blades can cause "clutter" which is radar interference that can obscure moving targets or generate false radar returns. 

In some radar images, wind farms do cause clutter. For instance, on some days, you see what appears to be a persistent, stationary shower on Doppler weather radar over northeast New York. That "shower" is a large wind installation.

However, the Trump administration has been so untrustworthy, you have to wonder if this national security story is legit. Wind turbines have been around for a long time. You'd think the Defense Department would have figured out how to deal with them by now. 

This "national security threat" might be just another tactic to stop the offshore wind installations  

As the Associated Press reports:

"The pause.....is the latest step the administration has taken to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald' Trump's executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful."

There are other indications that the "national security" might be just an excuse to scuttle wind projects. "The record of decision all show that the Department of Defense was consulted at every stage of the permitting process," said Kirk Lippold, a national security expert and former Commander of the USS Cole. 

Cole noted that the projects had been awarded permits following years of review by state and federal agencies.  You'd think the Department of Defense would have raised red flags ages ago if these wind projects were interfering with our defense capabilities. 

I imagine there will be lawsuits out of this. 

We're already hearing grumblings of some sort of court action. Probably from more than one source. 

The Conservation Law Foundation called the offshore wind development pause "a desperate rerun of the Trump administration' failed attempt to kill offshore wind."  The Foundation, in their statement, already noted courts have already rejected Trump's attempts to kill offshore wind.

Then there's this from Ted Kelly of the Environmental Defense Fund: 

"For nearly a year, the Trump administration has recklessly obstructed the build-out of clean, affordable power for millions of Americas, just as the country's need for electricity is surging.....Now the administration is again illegally kneecapping America's largest source of renewable power, especially the we need more cheap, homegrown electricity"

 Kelly said the Trump administration's actions are especially rich since they're propping up aging, expensive coal plants "that rarely work and pollute our air."

Speaking of things that rarely work, the Trump administration seems to lose most of their court cases, except in the Supreme Court, which is solidly MAGA.  The new roadblock is the "classified documents" The Interior Department claims. It sounds like it could be a way to avoid sharing documents in the discovery phase of any lawsuits.  

In any event, some lawyers are going to have a great 2026, thanks to the Trump crowd.  

Iceland Gearing Up For Atlantic Current Collapse

Iceland considers the risk of a critical Atlantic Ocean
current collapsing an existential threat. 

New research I posted about back in September about the possible collapse of a critical Atlantic Ocean current has Iceland on high alert. 

The newer research contradicted some earlier studies and said that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could shut down as soon as the middle of this century.  

That's really bad, because the current is what keeps western Europe mild and wet. Without the current, winters in western Europe would become something like central North America, and droughts would take hold. In effect, western Europe would suffer through a sort of regional ice age. 

This mess would, of course, be due to climate change.  

The collapse of the current would also cause bad, bad, worldwide effects, such as greatly increased water temperatures along United States East Coast. That would cause an abrupt rise in sea levels, since warm water expands. It would also might make the eastern United States more prone to hurricanes and other big storms. 

The collapse of the AMOC would also mess up rainfall amounts and seasons that farmers in Africa, India and South America have relied upon for centuries. 

Then there's Iceland. 

Like most of the rest of the world, Iceland has been warming up, thanks to climate change. The island nation way up in the North Atlantic actually saw their first mosquitoes in recorded history this year because the region had warmed up so much. 

If the AMOC shuts down, Iceland would definitely earn its name. It, too, benefits from the warmth of AMOC. 

Even though an AMOC collapse might not happen for a few decades, if at all, it has put Iceland on full alert:

According to Iceland Review:

"Iceland has, for the first time, classified a climate-related phenomenon as a national security threat, following warnings that a key Atlantic Ocean current system may be approaching collapse."

......"The move allows authorities to coordinate response plans across ministries, covering food and energy supplies, infrastructure and transport resilience."

MSN continues the story: 

"It is a direct threat to our national resilience and security.' Iceland Climate Minister Johann Pall Johansson said by email '(This) is the first time a specific climate-related phenomenon has been formally brought before the National Security Council as a potential existential threat.'"

Iceland is looking at a full range of possible effects of an AMOC crash, such as energy supplies, food security, infrastructure and transportation, both internal and with other nations.  

Other nations are taking notice, too. 

For instance, Ireland's weather service scientists briefed the nation's prime minister on the AMOC issue. Norway's environmental ministry said it was "seeking to deepen our understanding of the issue through new research" before determining whether to classify AMOC as a security risk,' MSN reported. 

INTERCONNECTED CHAOS

Of course, nobody knows when or if the AMOC will grind to a halt. If that happens, scientists think it would make Antarctica warm up even faster than it is now.

Newly released research also suggest that melting around West Antarctica now could help preserve the AMOC, or at least slow its demise.   

According to New Scientist:

"..it won't be enough to prevent major changes to the climate. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) would still decline buy 60 percent, and its full recovery would take 3,000 years."

Which seems to me a little long to wait, don't you think?

As always, there's a lot of ifs, questions and blank spots in the research done by Sacha Sinet at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. 

 New Scientist again:

"According to simulations by Sinet and his colleagues, the timing of the melting is key. If a centuries-long pulse of Antarctic meltwater arrives at the same time as massive melt from Greenland, it will only see up the AMOC shutdown. 

If the Antarctic water arrives about 1,000 years before the peak of Greenland's melting, however, the AMOC would weaken for several hundred years, but then recover over the next 3,000 years. While the AMOC eventually recovered in all scenarios, this early Antarctic melt prevented its total collapses and sped up its revival." 

In other words, climate change isn't as simple as the world just warming up. Everything is connected, so expect the unexpected when it comes to climate change.