Canada Stabs Trump In Back With New Offshore Wind Plan

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Oh the irony, it burns. US President Donald Trump* has been fixated on getting rid of wind turbines ever since the early 2000’s, when he lost a fight with Scotland over a new offshore wind farm across the way from one of his golf courses. Now Canada is starting the fight all over again with the official unveiling of plans for a series of massive new wind farms to sprout up all over the North Atlantic coast off Nova Scotia, practically right on the doorstep of the US.

*Surreal as it is to believe, Trump really is the President of the United States of America, treason and all.

Losing The War Against Offshore Wind Farms…To Canada

Canada teased word of its offshore wind venture last month with a focus on the considerable wind resources of Nova Scotia. The Natural Resources Canada agency made it official last week.

“Canada’s east coast has some of the strongest winds in the world, and developing that natural advantage presents a transformative economic opportunity for Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada, and our entire nation,” NRC announced on October 15.

NRC left out the part where Canada is also a leading source of renewable energy imported to the US, particularly in the area of hydropower. What happens in Canada, doesn’t necessarily stay in Canada.

The latest example is a new hydropower transmission line from Lake Champlain in Canada that terminates in New York City. All else being equal, the potential is there for Canadian wind power to find its way into the US, Trump or no Trump.

It Takes A Village, And The Village Is Ready

The October 15 announcement committed the Canadian government to a $100 million investment to kickstart the Nova Scotia offshore wind industry. If all goes according to plan, the government support will help de-risk the venture for private capital.

To be clear, the overall plan is not confined to wind energy. The new “Atlantic Energy Strategy,” which was formulated last year, also includes nuclear and hydropower in an effort to pump up the Atlantic Canada grid to meet the demands of the 21st century. Still, considering the limitations of both nuclear and hydropower (siting, expense, long development timelines), the “Wind West” component of the plan is shaping up to be the quickest, most economical, and most accessible pathway to success.

After all, the offshore wind industry is a mature global industry, enabling Canada to call upon experts and supply chains all across the world — including here in the US — to fill in whatever gaps it lacks domestically.

For example, earlier this year the state of Massachusetts signed an agreement with Canada, aimed at accelerating the development of North Atlantic wind resources (shhh! don’t tell Trump!). Although the agreement speaks vaguely of cooperation, Nova Scotia was more specific in a press statement earlier this year. “Nova Scotia and Massachusetts signed an agreement 4 February 2026 to work toward Nova Scotia supplying the state with clean energy from offshore wind,” was the message.

For that matter, Canada already has a running start. “Nova Scotia’s world-class wind and highly skilled offshore workforce, developed through the legacy of offshore oil and gas, give Canada a competitive advantage in the potentially $1-trillion global offshore wind market — an advantage we are determined to seize,” enthused Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, in a press statement.

One Offshore Wind Plan To Rule Them All

“Wind West aims to generate enough zero-emissions electricity to power Nova Scotia’s entire population and export additional power beyond Nova Scotia via new transmission infrastructure,” NRC affirmed last week.

The wheels are already in motion to kick things off in 2027. Of the new $100 million commitment, $5 million is earmarked for buoys mounted with sensing and measurement equipment. The idea is to provide investors with hard numbers on wind speeds and other factors in advance of a call-out to investors, to be conducted sometime after the New Year.

NRC is shunting another $3 million to the research agency Net Zero Atlantic, which is tasked with laying the groundwork for transmission, including wind farms cables as well as transmission from Nova Scotia to Quebec and points beyond.

Next Steps For Offshore Wind In The US

As for the rich offshore wind resources of the US, Trump has tried every which way to stop new “steel in the water” while he is in office (here’s just one example, and there are many more).

“Picking energy winners and losers” was supposed to be a very bad thing to do, according to Republican office holders back during the administration of US President Barack Obama. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the whole idea of leveling the energy playing field has slid into the dustbin of political expediency.

Trump has spent considerable time, effort, and taxpayer dollars trying to stomp out the US wind industry, and along with it goes tens of thousands of good paying jobs all across the US, in red and blue states alike. Speaking of irony, the ruby red state of Louisiana was instrumental in building the nation’s very first offshore wind farm, the Block Island array in Rhode Island, leveraging its wealth of knowledge and equipment in the offshore energy business.

For all Trump’s efforts, five new wind farms are at or near operation off the coasts of Atlantic states on his watch, and more are in the pipeline. Trump has tried to order work stoppages on the projects multiple times, only to lose in court. In the latest development, last week the Trump administration filed a brief in court seeking to halt Connecticut’s 65-turbine Revolution Wind project, which is already in operation pending full completion later this year.

That maneuver will likely be shot down in court just like all the other ones. In the meantime, Trump’s war on offshore wind has all the trappings of a vanity project, akin to his Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Center debacles alongside his gilded ballroom, triumphal arch, tree-killing golf course project, and the renaming of considerable swaths of the globe in his honor.

Whelp, sound and fury, sound and fury. Years of work will go into undoing the damage, but it will be undone after Trump leaves office in January of 2029, peacefully this time, one hopes. The next US President to will most likely resume the offshore lease program that Trump suspended upon taking office last year, and thousands of turbines will sprout up in the water to give the ex-President to-be nightmares long after he waves good-bye to the Oval Office.

Photo: Canada plans to send offshore wind power from the Nova Scotia coast towards energy-thirsty communities including parts of the US, too (courtesy of NRC via CleanTechnica archive).