The towers were still upright, after all. Maybe someone would finish them.
Opponents of offshore wind often cited harm to fisheries, bird strikes, or coastal views. But Rhode Island’s own environmental‑impact studies had already cleared the project. Local fishermen had joined the planning process. The biggest risk, it turned out, wasn’t turbines—it was government unreliability.
Tom picked up a discarded welding glove from the deck. The inside was still warm.
It’s not just power lines or ports. Each canceled turbine is one less leaf in a forest we need to build to dull the heat. Each idle rig is another gallon of sunlight, wasted and burned again through oil.
He thought of Mae again. Her son was ten. His own boy had gone into telecom. “Chased signal,” he’d called it. Tom hadn’t argued. What was there to stay for?
The wind kept pulling at the tarp seams, rattling against the steel. The towers still stood, skeletal—an unfinished cathedral waiting for a congregation that never came.
The wind didn’t know about politics. It only knew how to move—and how long it could outlast them. Whether the country could say the same was less clear.⁷
Biibliography
1. Clare Fieseler, “Revolution Wind’s stop‑work order has been lifted. What happens next?” Canary Media, September 23, 2025. A detailed account of the federal judge’s ruling in favour of restarting the nearly completed offshore wind project and its broader implications.
2. Eugene Kiely, “Trump, Project 2025 and Climate Change/Fossil Fuels,” FactCheck.org, October 1, 2025. Explains how Project 2025 aligns Trump’s agenda with fossil‑fuel expansion and renewable‑energy rollbacks.
3. Nancy Lavin, “Revolution Wind developer records $77 M impairment due to stop‑work order,” Rhode Island Current, November 5, 2025. Reports on the financial cost of the pause to the developer of the Rhode Island offshore wind project.
4. “US judge rules Trump cannot block Rhode Island offshore wind project,” Reuters, September 22, 2025. Coverage of the federal court’s ruling that the stop‑work order was “arbitrary and capricious.”
5. “Trump’s wind power restrictions put blue states’ climate goals out of reach,” The Washington Post, February 16, 2025. Shows how offshore wind delays threaten state‑level decarbonization plans.
6. “Connecticut and Rhode Island to sue to overturn baseless Revolution Wind stop‑work order,” CT.gov Press Release, August 26, 2025.