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Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has launched an all-out attack on the offshore wind energy sector, issuing stop-work orders for near-complete projects on the East Coast and canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for other proposed projects, including more than $435 million earmarked for Humboldt County. 

In a recent segment on National Public Radio, climate solutions correspondent Julia Simon speaks with Chris Mikkelsen, executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District, about how the loss of federal funding is reshaping the district’s plans for a heavy-lift marine terminal that would support the offshore wind project planned 20 miles west of Eureka.

In an at-times emotional interview, Mikkelsen told Simon that the port development project, which was supposed to be shovel-ready as soon as 2026, would “change the economic viability of our community.”

“Now we’ve been on pause since we got the news in August, we’ve been pencils down,” Mikkelsen told NPR. “It very much contributed to the delay.”

On his first day in office, President Trump fulfilled a long-held promise to block new offshore wind development in the United States, issuing a sweeping Executive Order to halt leasing and permitting for new projects slated for the outer continental shelf.

Still, Mikkelsen told NPR he was confused as to why the administration decided to pull the federal grant funding, noting that Trump “really ran on a platform that we’re gonna build back America. That we’re gonna create jobs in rural America. Good, skilled, trained, high-paying jobs.”

With the U.S. backtracking on renewable energy investments, China is now leading the global renewable energy sector. NPR correspondent Anthony Kuhn explains:

In the first half of this year, China built more solar than the rest of the world combined. China accounts for 74% of all large scale solar and wind under construction, according to the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor. … More than a quarter of China’s economic growth in 2024 came from wind, solar and battery technologies, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a nonprofit. Energy experts say it’s too early to know the full impact of the Trump administration’s anti-renewable policies, but in the first half of 2025, U.S. renewable investment fell by 36%.

You listen to the full interview below.

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