By Benoît Morenne

Big Oil has an unusual ask for President Trump: Please stop your battle against offshore wind.

Oil lobbyists have made the case to Trump officials in recent weeks that his attacks on wind farms off the U.S. coast risk derailing congressional efforts to speed up permits for energy projects, according to people familiar with the matter. The oil-and-gas industry fears missing out on a huge opportunity to ship more of its products to markets via new pipelines.

Since coming into office, Trump has repeatedly targeted wind farms he has described as ugly, expensive and destructive for wildlife. His Interior Department suspended all offshore wind projects in the works from Massachusetts to Virginia, prompting energy companies to sue the government. But even as judges have sided with developers against the administration and allowed projects to move forward, Trump has persisted.

"My goal is to not let any windmill be built," Trump said last month at a White House meeting with oil executives. "They are the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy."

Trump's actions have plunged the wind industry into turmoil. Now, they risk backfiring against his oil allies and putting their own projects on shaky ground.

The oil-and-gas industry has for months told the administration that its moves to expedite fossil-fuel projects should be enshrined in law -- lest a Democratic president reverse them in the future. But Trump's continued blitz against wind is throwing a monkey wrench into a crucial legislative push to do just that.

Senate Democrats have said they would refuse to negotiate a bipartisan law to reform energy permits as long as Trump keeps stalling wind farms. Oil lobbyists see a narrowing window to break the logjam before the midterm elections, when they expect Democrats to regain control of the House.

"This administration has done everything that they could do at the administrative level," Mike Sommers, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. industry's largest trade group, said last week at an energy conference in Houston. "If you think that permanent reform is hard to get done now, just wait until the Democrats control the United States House of Representatives."

Trump's escalating feud with wind is forcing the fossil-fuel industry into odd contortions. It was incensed at former President Joe Biden's decisions to cancel the controversial Keystone XL crude pipeline and pause new exports of natural gas. Now, it has become a de facto, albeit begrudging, mediator between wind developers experiencing their own setbacks and the Trump administration.

Lobbyists have told staff at the National Energy Dominance Council, a body Trump set up to boost energy projects, that the administration's stance against wind makes it much more difficult to get a bipartisan deal in Congress, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

API has made it clear to the administration that permitting is its No. 1 legislative priority, and it supports ensuring that all projects that have received a federal nod can be completed -- including wind projects, according to people familiar with the matter. API isn't engaged in lobbying for or against wind projects and is focused on advocating for the oil-and-gas industry, the people said.

Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at API, said the group has been crystal clear about its priorities with lawmakers and the administration, which include amending a law that imposes federal reviews of the environmental impact of projects.

A spokeswoman for the White House reaffirmed Trump's position that "wind farms are a liability that jeopardizes the safety of the American people." She said the administration is working closely with its partners in Congress to drive reforms to the permitting process.

The stalemate in Congress could hurt Trump's goals to reshore critical industries and win the AI race. The U.S. faces a daunting challenge to meet new electricity demand from data centers, factories and electric vehicles that it won't sate without a major energy build-out. Cutting the U.S.'s reliance on imports for critical minerals such as lithium and copper requires new mines. For all these reasons, streamlining the complex web of laws and regulations that govern energy projects has become a bipartisan priority on Capitol Hill.

The oil-and-gas industry sees a huge opportunity to build new pipelines. Environmental groups have become proficient at blocking new conduits by stalling projects in the courts. Delays that companies have incurred fighting regulatory and court challenges have spurred many to scrap multibillion-dollar ventures in recent years.

"Pipelines have been a bottleneck. Infrastructure has been a bottleneck, " said Toby Rice, chief executive of natural gas producer EQT. "It's been harder for us to get our gas to market."

Trump has successfully used his power to block wind farms as leverage to benefit his oil-and-gas allies. After Trump reversed a stop-work order on a major wind project off New York's coast last May, the state approved a natural gas pipeline project that energy company Williams had previously abandoned.

But the fossil-fuel industry is adamant that it needs a law to make sure it can build pipelines and not see its permits yanked by a future administration. In December, it praised the House for passing bipartisan legislation to narrow environmental review timelines and litigation windows for energy projects.

Four days later, the administration paused the federal leases for five offshore wind projects under construction "due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports." In protest, Democrats said they were freezing negotiations to pass a Senate version of the House bill as long as Trump didn't reverse his attacks.

Some oil lobbyists say privately that Trump's deep aversion to wind farms makes no sense to them. Many in the industry say they have been frustrated with the situation.

"We've been heavily focused on permitting reform as kind of like the cork in the bottle," said Sam Sledge, board chair of the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, an industry trade group. "I think that's been caught in the crosswinds of some other priorities with Trump's administration."

Write to Benoît Morenne at benoit.morenne@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 28, 2026 02:33 ET (07:33 GMT)

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