PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S ban on new offshore wind leases won’t halt giant wind farms already planned off California’s coast, but industry officials say the policy shift is a blow to a renewable energy industry still working to gain a foothold.

President Donald Trump suspended new federal offshore wind leasing pending an environmental and economic review, saying wind mills are ugly, expensive and harm wildlife.

The market for offshore wind is changing direction, and it's not blowing Somerset's way. How did its $300M Prysmian deal fall through?

News circulated last week that Trump had tapped New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, a Republican who’s frequently criticized projects proposed off the coast of his state, to draft an executive order on offshore wind. Industry observers said it may include a moratorium on all development.

U.S. President Donald Trump suspended new federal offshore wind leasing on his first day back in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, pending an environmental and economic review. On the same day, Danish energy company Orsted,

Belfast, which hopes to cement its position as a major contributor to Northern Ireland’s economy, said it intends to invest $386 million in capital projects under a new regional development strategy.

President Trump signed an executive order temporarily stopping approvals for new wind projects. Nationwide, about 10% of the electricity mix in the U.S. comes from wind power. Here in Texas, though, that number is much higher.

The political winds in Washington, D.C., have shifted against offshore wind energy plans that include at least one ambitious and controversial project proposed for Hawaii. President Donald Trump on Monday stopped further consideration of leasing federal waters,

“We are proud to announce [Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s] final approval of the SouthCoast Wind project, the nation’s eleventh commercial-scale offshore wind energy project, which will power more than 840,000 homes,” Elizabeth Klein, director of BOEM, said in a statement.

The first Trump administration lost more than three-quarters of the court cases against its regulatory actions, according to New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity. Many of those cases were brought by state attorneys general, including New York’s.

Maine, meanwhile, is mired in a long-running debate over where to develop an offshore wind port — Mack Point, an existing industrial port in Searsport, or adjacent Sears Island, an undeveloped state-owned island linked by a causeway.

The president’s order has no immediate effect on offshore wind leases already authorized, including two large areas off California’s coast. But it sends a current of uncertainty through the fledgling renewable energy industry,