'this Is How You Blow Up A Permitting Deal': Sen. Whitehouse Slams Trump Over Offshore Wind

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a lead Democratic negotiator on the Senate's permitting bill, said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s targeting of offshore wind projects is jeopardizing the bipartisan deal to overhaul the country's approval process for major infrastructure projects.

In a court filing late Tuesday evening, the Justice Department said it was seeking to reopen a permit for the New England Wind project off Massachusetts. It is the fourth project targeted by the administration in recent weeks.

Whitehouse fired back on Wednesday, telling POLITICO, “This is how you blow up a permitting deal.”

Senate Democrats and Republicans earlier this month appeared to have secured a major breakthrough with the proposal of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026. At its most basic, the deal would make it easier to permit transmission projects — a major priority for Democrats seeking to boost clean energy — while making tweaks to the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act sought by Republicans looking to pave the way for fossil fuel projects.

The White House appeared to be on board, too. Jarrod Agen, the head of National Energy Dominance Council, tweeted last week that “the White House maintains support for PERMITTING REFORM!”

Yet even as the administration expressed support for permitting reform, it was ratcheting up legal efforts to target offshore wind projects that had been approved by the Biden administration. First up was the Revolution Wind project, a 704-megawatt wind farm that's already operating off the coast of Whitehouse’s home state of Rhode Island. That was followed by attempts to remand permits for Atlantic Shores off New Jersey and Maryland Offshore Wind, two projects that have yet to start construction.

The fourth arrived Tuesday night, when DOJ asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to “remand, without vacatur,” the permit for New England Wind. The Interior Department needs to reevaluate its compliance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, DOJ said.

“Upon remand, Interior would make a new decision regarding the COP,” DOJ wrote.

A White House official defended the legal filings, saying they are responding to lawsuits filed by local groups during the Biden administration.

"The government is required to respond on the court’s briefing schedules. Our filings defend the current government’s litigating position," the official said. "We have been very transparent about the need for permitting reform and have also been transparent with Senator Whitehouse’s and Senator Heinrich’s teams on all these legal filings.”

But one industry source with ties to the White House, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive business plans, told POLITICO last week that the administration was seeking to gain leverage over Democrats in permitting talks.

“I think this was kind of a fuck-up,” the person said, noting that the moves had created unease in Democratic ranks about the deal. “I think it is a dumb move and it’s blown up in their face. Whoever made the decision made a tactical error. You don’t want to be the guy who derailed permitting reform.”

Avangrid, the developer on the Massachusetts wind project, did not respond to a request for comment. Interior also did not respond to a request for comment.

Nico Portuondo contributed to this story.