Daily Caller by Audrey Streb 10/6/2025
A May 2021 internal memo revealed the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) warned the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) that “delaying receipt of financial assurance increases the risk to the federal taxpayer” when BOEM was considering granting Vineyard Wind the 15-year decommissioning cost delay.
Federal rules typically require companies to pre-fund decommissioning to protect taxpayers if a project fails or reaches the end of its life. The Biden administration allowed Ørsted and other developers a special exception to delay those funds, despite offshore wind being relatively untested in the U.S., while cracking down on well-established energy resources like oil, gas and coal.
“While this is a BOEM decision, BSEE has significant concerns with granting a departure to current regulations that require financial assurance before installation of any facilities,” the memo states. “The primary risk are as follows: delaying receipt of financial assurance increases the risk to the federal taxpayer as identified by Government Accountability Office (GAO), the longer financial assurance is deferred, the greater the chance that the government will not collect [and] decommissioning funds may need to be accessed prior to the expected end of project life due to unforeseen events.”
The documents show that Ørsted requested the 15-year deferral of the customary financial assurance for decommissioning Revolution Wind in November 2023 and subsequently received approval for it in March 2024. Notably, a Reagan-appointed federal judge allowed Revolution Wind to continue in a ruling on Sept. 22 after the Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a work-stop order in August 2025.
“Revolution Wind, LLC is in compliance with BOEM financial assurance requirements for the project, including with respect to decommissioning,” an Ørsted spokesperson told the DCNF.
“Revolution Wind is 80% complete, remains under construction, and will power more than 350,000 American homes upon its completion.”
More:
https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/10/06/exclusive-biden-admin-streamlined-path-for-offshore-wind-boondoggles-despite-internal-red-flags/
