Late December 2025 witnessed significant regulatory disruption within the offshore energy sector, as federal authorities suspended major wind projects citing national security concerns and advanced several liquefied natural gas projects toward final investment decisions, signaling strategic industry pivots toward domestic energy reliability.
On December 22nd, the U.S. Department of the Interior ordered five offshore wind farms currently under construction to stop work due to national security concerns. Dominion Energy, developer of one of these offshore wind projects and Dominion's largest offshore project, filed suit challenging this stop-work order as unconstitutional and unlawful on December 23rd.
In December 2025, the Trump administration ordered construction on five major offshore wind projects to cease due to national security concerns related to radar interference. These included Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind, Sunrise Wind Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind; their developers are challenging this order in court.
On December 10, 2025, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held its inaugural Gulf of America offshore oil and gas lease sale with over $300 million bids and marked the beginning of an aggressive 30-lease program with reduced royalty rates of just 12.5 percent through 2040.
The Trump administration announced in December 2024 that construction work on five major U.S. offshore wind farms had been suspended due to national security concerns, impacting billions in investment projects totalling billions total with Dominion Energy already filing suit to resume work on its largest windfarm project - this unprecedented challenge to an emerging offshore wind sector was taken as the ultimate result of such actions taken against construction of five offshore wind farms totalling billions in investments total.
On November 20, the Trump administration announced the largest ever offshore oil and gas leasing program, proposing 34 possible lease sales across 1.27 billion acres. Floating offshore wind continues its international march, with 25 MW installed across the globe by 2025, and 2.5GW expected operational by 2030.
On November 20, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a major overhaul of offshore energy policy, directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to scrap then-Vice President Joe Biden’s leasing plan in favor of a robust 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to be completed by October 2026, making over 85% of estimated technically recoverable offshore resources leasing-eligible.