The documented federal pause was announced on December 22, 2025—not October 2026—and covered five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction. The Interior Department’s announcement did not state their combined capacity, so the claim that a new halt covered 6 gigawatts (GW) is not verified by that notice. Later court actions and separate lease-cancellation arrangements further complicate the projects’ status.
What the December 2025 pause covered
The Department of the Interior said on December 22, 2025, that it was pausing, effective immediately, the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects then under construction in the United States. It named five projects and their lease numbers:
| Project | Lease number | Status when Interior announced the pause |
|---|---|---|
| Vineyard Wind 1 | OCS-A 0501 | Under construction |
| Revolution Wind | OCS-A 0486 | Under construction |
| CVOW Commercial | OCS-A 0483 | Under construction |
| Sunrise Wind | OCS-A 0487 | Under construction |
| Empire Wind 1 | OCS-A 0512 | Under construction |
Interior’s announcement lists the projects but gives no combined gigawatt capacity. It therefore does not establish that these five leases total 6 GW, or that a new 6 GW pause occurred in October 2026. The figure’s scope and timing remain unverified in the available official notice. Interior’s announcement
Why Interior said it paused the leases
Interior cited classified Department of War reports identifying national-security risks. Its public explanation focused on radar clutter: turbine blades in motion and highly reflective towers, the department said, can obscure legitimate moving targets or create false targets. Interior also quoted its description of a 2024 Department of Energy report: “The Department of Energy in a 2024 report stated that a radar’s threshold for false alarm detection can be increased to reduce some clutter, but an increased detection threshold could cause the radar to ‘miss actual targets.’” This is Interior’s account of the DOE report, not a direct review of that report here. Interior’s explanation
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Announcing the pause, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said, “The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people.” That statement reflects the administration’s rationale; it does not establish that every project poses the same risk or that any identified risk cannot be mitigated. Interior’s release
What happened after the pause
The pause was not the only federal action affecting offshore wind. On January 20, 2025, a presidential memorandum temporarily withdrew certain Outer Continental Shelf areas from new offshore wind leasing and paused specified new or renewed approvals, permits, leases, rights-of-way, or loans pending review. That measure is distinct from Interior’s December 2025 action against the five projects already under construction. BOEM’s program page lists the memorandum alongside later policy actions and 2026 energy agreements. BOEM’s renewable-energy program page
The five-project pause also did not remain a simple, uninterrupted stop to construction. The Associated Press later reported that judges reviewed classified information and permitted all five wind farms to resume construction. In the Revolution Wind dispute, AP reported that Senior Judge Royce Lamberth questioned whether the national-security rationale could be pretextual. That reported concern belongs to that case and judge; it should not be generalized to the other projects. Associated Press account of the court rulings
How separate 2026 lease-cancellation deals fit in
Lease-cancellation arrangements reported in 2026 are a separate strand from the December 2025 construction pause. On September 22, 2026, AP reported that California and New York and other states had sued over proposed or agreed cancellation arrangements involving Invenergy and Bluepoint Wind. AP described $1.4 billion in taxpayer payments for the deals discussed in that report and nearly $4 billion pledged across agreements. Those are reported dollar amounts tied to cancellation arrangements—not gigawatts of capacity and not the cost of the 2025 pause. Associated Press report on the state lawsuits
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A pause, a court decision allowing construction to resume, and a cancellation agreement are different legal and practical situations. A lawsuit over an arrangement does not by itself show that a lease has been finally cancelled. For individual lease records and project activity, BOEM directs readers to its lease-and-grant records and state or project pages. Check those records for the latest status rather than inferring it from a past announcement or a proposed deal. BOEM’s renewable-energy program · BOEM state and project activity pages
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to check a project’s current status
- Find the project’s lease number in the table above.
- Open BOEM’s renewable-energy program page and follow its links to lease-and-grant records or the relevant state and project activity page.
- Check for the latest recorded lease action and any project-specific updates. A historical pause or a reported cancellation arrangement does not, on its own, establish the lease’s current legal status.
Permitting can also proceed on a separate track. For example, the federal Permitting Dashboard’s SouthCoast Wind modification history showed the permit action in progress and an alternative completion date of October 9, 2026; it described the Corps’ reliance on BOEM’s reconsideration of the environmental impact statement after remand. SouthCoast Wind is not one of the five leases named in Interior’s December 2025 pause, so that dashboard entry should not be read as a status update for them. SouthCoast Wind’s Permitting Dashboard record
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