The United States offshore wind landscape has shifted significantly throughout 2025, with a recent report claiming that the project pipeline has almost halved.

The latest report from the Energy Industries Council (EIC) has pointed to ambitious targets and strong policy commitments of the Biden administration. However, even under Biden, the industry was grappling with challenges seen across the global industry, such as bottlenecks, rising costs, and overall delays.

The current Trump administration not only shifted energy priorities away from offshore wind but is actively looking to bury the sector with regulatory reversals, project cancellations, reduced federal funding, and stop-work orders. This has created an uncertainty that is likely to persist in the coming years.

According to the EIC’s report, the development pipeline has fallen considerably, from a planned 56GW to 25.4GW as projects stalled or were halted during this period. The number of projects also dropped from 45 to 23.

Some of the key factors identified in the report include the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s narrow 2026-2027 incentive window, new federal leasing freezes, and tariffs impacting key materials, such as steel and aluminium. The approval of the Act also resulted in auction postponements, the withdrawal of previously designated wind areas.

As a result, several developments were cancelled and some developers stepped back from the market – at least for the time being.

Nevertheless, EIC claims that suppliers remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of the US offshore wind market. In the short term, many can diversify their operations by delivering into offshore oil and gas projects or supplying to emerging markets, such as Canada.

Despite these challenges, the report highlights California as a resilient growth hub, at least for the foreseeable future, supported by $475m in port funding and continued progress on floating offshore wind projects.

EIC believes that offshore wind in the US is not finished, but rather in a period of strategic pause as stakeholders assess whether momentum can eventually return.

However, policy uncertainty stands out as the most pressing challenge, shaping expectations for the long-term outlook and the pace at which the industry may recover.

 “Policy clarity will be decisive in determining whether these projects move forward or stay in limbo,” said Rebecca Groundwater, EIC global head of external affairs.