During the reconciliation process that eventually delivered the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill, most individual clean energy developers appeared unwilling to make a public case for the tax credits that have been so important to the industry’s growth. Instead, they relied on trade organizations and quiet, behind-the-scenes advocacy from large corporate energy buyers to make their case to lawmakers.
The strategy proved largely ineffective. The legislation’s final cuts to critical tax investments were only slightly less harsh than the initial draft that caused the clean energy industry’s “holy shit moment” back in May. Key tax credits for solar, wind and other clean technologies are being phased out over the next year.
But the administration’s approach to block clean energy has been multi-pronged, and extended beyond reconciliation: executive orders to halt new offshore wind leases, new layers of approvals for solar developments, and stop-work orders on already-approved projects. By many accounts that approach is working: Even before the passage of the OBBB, research showed that more clean energy projects were closed, cancelled, or downsized in the first half of 2025 than in the prior two years combined, totaling around $22 billion in lost investment.
Offshore wind has so far borne the brunt of federal campaigns to cancel specific projects. The administration has canceled federal funding, revoked permits, and issued stop-work orders, moves that have impacted eight gigawatts of planned wind projects — more than half of the total wind capacity approved during the Biden administration.
In response to those efforts, offshore wind has gone far beyond the OBBB playbook of quiet phone calls and industry-group statements, and has pivoted instead to loud state and local engagement.
When the administration slapped Equinor’s Empire Wind project with a stop-work order in April, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stepped in to broker a deal for its removal. Earlier this week, apparently in response to similar stop-work orders issued to Ørsted’s $4 billion Revolution Wind project, a group of New England governors joined forces and issued a joint statement urging the Trump administration to “uphold all offshore wind permits already granted and allow these projects to be constructed.” And today, Rhode Island’s attorney general announced that the state is challenging the stop-work order in federal court, via a lawsuit alleging it violated both the Administrative Procedure Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Solar, and other clean energy developers hoping to build in the U.S. in the next several years, should be taking note, said Kat Burnham, a senior principal at Advanced Energy United, which represents clean energy companies and corporate buyers across clean energy sectors.
The leverage for clean energy sectors has shifted away from the federal level, Burnham explained. Now, she said, it’s time for them to double down on state and local engagement — including building alliances with governors, state energy offices, attorneys general, and organized labor — in order to keep projects moving. “We need to see all hands on deck from states,” she added.
Revolution Wind in particular — where construction is “a matter of weeks away from completion” but is now sitting idle — should put the reality of project failures into “sharp focus” for other industries, Burnham said.
Ørsted has already erected 40 or so turbines in the waters between Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island. It’s an extreme example of “what a sunk cost could be,” she added. “It’s billions of dollars, not to mention the expertise…that will be forced to go elsewhere.”
Reaching an inflection point
The exact outcome of the collective effort by New England governors remains to be seen. But its coordination — and its specific messaging — is something that other industries should be watching closely, Burnham said.
Their statement, released on Labor Day, didn’t mention climate change, emissions reduction, or decarbonization goals. Instead, it argued the cancellation of offshore wind projects “jeopardize hardworking families,” “[cede] leadership to foreign competitors,” and “cost tens of thousands of American jobs and critical investment.”
But they didn’t avoid the energy context altogether, writing that they “remain committed to ensuring that the electric grid is reliable, resilient, and affordable.” That requires a “diverse mix of resources” that includes offshore wind and other renewables, nuclear power, natural gas, and hydropower, among other things, the governors said.
Those are the issues that solar developers and others in clean energy should be focusing on to gather local and state support, Burnham said.
(They’re also the issues that clean energy more broadly should be conveying to voters, she added, but that’s a secondary hurdle: “We will never get the opportunity [to educate people about clean energy] if we don’t follow through on the projects.”)
There’s already evidence of the state advocacy play working outside of wind, particularly in the context of frozen federal funding. In February, the Department of Energy unfroze a $1.4 billion loan the Biden administration had made to Calumet subsidiary Montana Renewables to produce sustainable aviation fuel, largely thanks to the intervention of Montana Senator Steve Daines. “Montana Renewables and the Calumet refinery provide high-paying jobs, boost our economy and provide efficient biofuel production,” Senator Daines told Latitude Media at the time. “I worked directly with the Department of Energy to make sure that Montana’s best interests were represented.”
For Burnham, those types of local interventions are likely the best way to proceed during this administration. “The industry has been advocating where it can to try and be constructive, but perhaps we’re at an inflection point,” she said. “We wanted to work with the administration. It did not have to be adversarial…but given their approach, we absolutely need to adapt, and we are certainly doing that in real time.”
