US wind energy jobs: unions push back against Trump's offshore wind crackdown
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to halt offshore wind construction in the US, unions have won project continuations in court, though the industry's long-term future remains uncertain. Workers like a former New York subway electrician have found new, well-paid careers building offshore wind farms.
Ryan McElroen, a New York electrician, began training two years ago for a new trade: building offshore wind farms. With support from his union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, he has worked on the Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind projects off the New York coast, trading his old job repairing subway tunnels for open-ocean views of seals, dolphins and sunsets.
The US labor coalition Climate Jobs National Resource Center (CJNRC) has spent years working to ensure the clean energy sector creates quality, unionized jobs. The group traces its origins to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when union leaders realized workers would be hit hardest by climate change. Working with researchers at Cornell, they built the Climate Jobs New York coalition, which pushed the state to commit to building nine gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2035 with strong wage standards attached.
A boost under Biden
President Joe Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act tied clean-energy incentives to fair-wage and apprenticeship requirements, allowing unions and environmental groups to work together. By September 2024, the Biden administration had approved 10 major offshore wind projects totaling more than 15 gigawatts of capacity.
Trump's pushback
Since returning to office, Donald Trump has moved to unwind much of Biden's climate agenda, halting federal incentives and repeatedly ordering stop-work orders on offshore wind projects already under construction, including Sunrise and Empire Wind in New York, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and projects in Massachusetts and Virginia. McElroen was working on Sunrise Wind when the stop-work order came down; electricians were deemed essential to keep the site from deteriorating during the shutdown.
Unions responded with press conferences and rallies, and courts ultimately blocked every stop-work order, allowing construction to resume. Several projects, including Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind, are now complete or delivering power to the grid. Still, Trump's actions have left a lasting mark: this year, the administration spent $2.7bn to cancel 12 offshore wind leases, and industry forecasts have been sharply cut, threatening future job growth in the sector.
