Yes, the Interior Department paused five big offshore wind projects over national security concerns — but the “blackout” warnings don’t match the evidence

The freeze is real and immediate. The reasons are more complex — and some of the scariest claims don’t hold up. Here’s what our reporting found, what’s still unknown, and what happens next.

The headline truth — and the twist

• Verified: On Dec. 22, 2025, the Department of the Interior halted five U.S. offshore wind projects — Vineyard Wind 1, Revolution Wind, Sunrise Wind, Empire Wind 1, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW – Commercial) — citing national security risks flagged in new classified reports. DOI press release

• The twist: One of those projects, Vineyard Wind 1, had already begun producing initial power in 2024–2025; Empire Wind 1 had reached financial close. The pause wasn’t a routine hiccup — it was a hard stop, mid‑stride. Equinor on Empire Wind 1

• New name, old agency: The “Department of War” cited in announcements is not a formal renaming of the Pentagon. Correction: The legal name remains the Department of Defense; a September 2025 executive order allows “Department of War” as a secondary title in communications. Executive order

What Interior says the pause is for

Interior, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, framed the move as time to work with leaseholders and states to assess and mitigate national security risks. That aligns with years of interagency work on wind‑radar conflicts. What’s different now is the reliance on newly completed classified analyses that aren’t public. DOI announcement

What the risk really is: radar “clutter,” not a system “blackout”

• Verified: Large wind turbines can confuse certain radar systems — they reflect signals and look like moving targets, creating “clutter.” When you filter out clutter, you risk missing real threats. This is a known engineering problem. DOE/DoD/FAA/NOAA strategy

• Context that matters: The U.S. and allies have spent years mitigating this — by adjusting siting, upgrading radar hardware and software (think smarter algorithms), and coordinating across agencies. The U.S. has a standing Wind Turbine Radar Interference Mitigation (WTRIM) working group for exactly this reason. WTRIM overview

• Correction: Claims that turbines cause a defense “blackout” are exaggerated. Radar performance can be degraded, but agencies have treated the issue as serious-and-manageable, not catastrophic.

The scariest claims we checked — and what we found

• “They leave the U.S. open to a sneak attack”

  • Partial truth, missing context: DoD has flagged risks near sensitive radars (e.g., early‑warning sites) and has sometimes asked for buffers. But many projects have proceeded after reviews and mitigations; coexistence has been the default policy. Historic example near Cape Cod

• “Undersea noise and signals travel thousands of miles and mask submarines”

  • Correction: Public science does not support “thousands of miles.” Operational noise from modern turbines is typically detectable over kilometers, not across ocean basins. Construction noise (like pile driving) is louder but temporary and tightly regulated. BOEM/NOAA record

• “Wind makes electricity more expensive because you must run a duplicate gas system”

  • Correction: Power markets don’t assign one‑for‑one “backup plants” to wind. They use system‑wide reserves and “capacity credits.” Empirical studies show wind often lowers wholesale prices by cutting fuel use, though integration and transmission costs are real and vary by region. DOE/LBNL context; market design explainer

• “Daily Mail interview quotes”

  • Unverified: We could not locate the specific Daily Mail interview or those exact quotes attributed to Diana Furchtgott‑Roth. She does direct the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and has voiced related concerns, but the quoted dialogue isn’t substantiated. Heritage bio

So why the sudden pause if this is a known issue?

Two things can be true at once:

• Earlier reviews cleared projects with mitigations.
• New classified assessments may have shifted the risk calculus.

Several outlets report that some paused projects had previously been green‑lit after interagency review. Interior now points to new classified findings from the “Department of War” as the reason to stop and reassess. Without public details, we can’t see what changed — a technical discovery, a geopolitical reevaluation, or both. Washington Post overview; Guardian context

What’s verified vs. what needs more light

• Verified

  • Interior paused five named projects immediately on national security grounds. DOI
  • “Department of War” is a permitted secondary title; the legal name remains DoD. White House EO
  • Wind turbines can degrade radar performance; agencies have long worked on mitigations. Energy.gov (2016/2023 strategy)

• Needs more light

  • The specific contents of the new classified reports that triggered the pause.
  • Which missions or radars are most affected, and whether hardware/software fixes suffice.
  • The timeline and terms for resuming work on each project.

How we verified this story

We cross‑checked the Interior announcement, the executive order on “Department of War,” multi‑agency radar‑mitigation documents, and project‑status records:

• DOI press release, Dec. 22, 2025: project list and rationale link
• Executive order allowing “Department of War” as secondary title link
• Federal interagency radar‑interference strategy (2016; updated 2023) link and update
• WTRIM working group overview link
• Project milestones: Empire Wind 1 financial close link
• Historic DoD siting concerns and buffer approach link
• Underwater acoustics/regulatory record link
• Market operations and wind impacts on prices link and market design explainer

What happens now

• Interior says it will use the pause to work with developers and states on mitigation.
• Expect a tug‑of‑war between classified risk assessments and public transparency demands.
• Watch for:
  • New siting buffers or route changes
  • Software/hardware upgrades to specific radars
  • Project‑by‑project restarts — or cancellations — depending on how risks and fixes pencil out

Bottom line

• True: The Trump Interior Department paused five offshore wind projects, citing national security risks flagged in new classified reports.
• Overstated: Talk of a defense “blackout” and submarine masking over “thousands of miles.”
• Missing in the hot takes: The U.S. has spent years learning how to make wind and radar coexist. The crucial question now is what the new classified analyses found — and whether those risks can be mitigated without scrapping projects already in motion.