For Immediate Release: December 23, 2025
IBEW International President Kenneth W. Cooper issued the following statement following the Trump Administration’s decision to pause leases for five major offshore wind projects employing IBEW members:
“This administration’s decision to pause offshore wind leases is a direct attack on American workers, U.S. energy security and affordability, and our nation’s economic future. Offshore wind projects represent thousands of good, union jobs for IBEW members who have spent years training to build and maintain this infrastructure, as well as tens of billions in private investment that strengthens domestic supply chains and reduces reliance on foreign energy sources.
“These projects have already been through extensive environmental, safety, and national security reviews, and halting them now creates uncertainty, stalls job creation, and hands a competitive advantage to other countries like China that are racing ahead in clean energy development.
“To throw these important projects into chaos while American families are already feeling the strain of high energy prices defies logic. These are the very projects that can quickly add capacity to the grid and begin to help meet skyrocketing demand.
“The IBEW believes America can protect national security while also building reliable, domestic energy with union labor. We urge the administration to reverse these cancellations and allow these projects and the workers behind them to move forward.”
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The IBEW represents approximately 873,000 members and retirees who work in a wide variety of fields, including construction, utilities, manufacturing, telecommunications, broadcasting, railroads and government.