At the mouth of New York’s Hudson River, Norwegian oil and gas producer Equinor is building the largest US port for offshore wind, and a potential monument to America’s energy future — or its past.
As Americans brace for one of the closest presidential elections in the nation’s history, investors and executives alike have been parsing campaign statements for which industries stand to gain or lose the most in the next administration. But as election day nears, one is clearly emerging as the most exposed to the outcome: renewable energy.
“A Harris-Walz win next Tuesday is good news for the offshore wind industry. A Trump-Vance win next Tuesday is terrible,” Sean McGarvey, president of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, which works on offshore wind projects, said at a conference this week. His predictions that Kamala Harris would win the election were met with unanimous applause.
Donald Trump has vowed to stop offshore wind projects on “day one” if re-elected. He has also pledged to “terminate” the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law that included lucrative tax credits to drive down the cost of renewable energy and turbocharge the pace of decarbonisation.