National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler has issued the following statement in response to the Trump Administration ordering work to stop on the Revolution Wind Energy Project off the coast of Rhode Island, which has employed more than 1,000 Union Members to date: The stop-work order on Revolution Wind is an outrage. This project is fully permitted and already 80% complete, thanks to the work of Members of North America’s Building Trades Unions. It is poised to create hundreds of additional jobs while supplying much-needed energy to the region. Now, President Trump has issued an order requiring work on the project to stop, effectively kicking hundreds of Union Members out of jobs their families and communities were relying on. New England needs this energy to keep energy prices down for Working Families and supply manufacturing. The Administration should reverse course immediately and allow the Revolution Wind project to proceed. 

USA Today reported the Trump Administration halted construction of Revolution Wind, the multi-billion-dollar wind farm being built south of the Rhode Island Coast that has already installed 45 of its 65 turbines. In a letter sent to Ørsted, the Danish company that is a partner on the joint venture developing the project, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ordered a stop to all ongoing activities related to the 704-megawatt wind farm that has contracts to deliver power to the States of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Bureau cited an Executive Order signed by Trump that aimed to rein in the expansion of offshore wind power in America. At the time, industry experts believed the order would stop proposed projects from moving through the permitting process, but that it wouldn’t affect wind farms like Revolution Wind that were already under construction.

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File Photo Courtesy Of Ørsted’s Facebook Page.