PROVIDENCE — It was three days before the holiday when President Donald Trump announced Rhode Island, figuratively, would be getting coal for Christmas.

Citing national security concerns, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Dec. 22 a last-minute stop-work order for all utility-scale offshore wind projects on the Eastern Seaboard. Impacted projects include Revolution Wind, Sunrise Wind, Empire Wind, and Vineyard Wind 1.

It was the second time in less than six months the Trump administration had attempted to halt the expansion of offshore wind. The administration’s previous stop-work order, issued last August, was ultimately overturned by the courts pending a lawsuit by attorneys from the Revolution Wind project.

Rhode Island’s state officials say they aren’t pleased with the surprise stop-work orders from the administration.

“This is BS, that’s all this is,” said Gov. Dan McKee at a Jan. 2 press conference. “This will impact Rhode Island and the greater region.”

“I called the deputy secretary of defense and asked him, ‘What is the national security reason behind the order,’ and his response, like every other time I’ve asked, was ‘It’s classified,’ which means they don’t have a reason,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he was halting negotiations with Senate Republicans over federal permitting reform laws. Whitehouse had been part of a group supporting the SPEED Act, which would have updated permitting and environmental requirements energy developers must follow when constructing oil or natural gas pipelines, renewable energy arrays, and transmission lines.

“We’ve paused negotiations until the attack on clean energy ends, and we can have assurances that a solid, bipartisan bill would actually get implemented fairly by this administration,” Whitehouse said. “I can’t possibly trust any fairness from this administration. It would be fossil fuel corruption all the way through.”

Friday’s press conference was one-half of a two-part event designed to raise awareness about the Trump administration’s hostility to Rhode Island’s nascent offshore wind projects, with the other half of the event being a rally outside at 195 District Park. The event was organized by Climate Action Rhode Island, Climate Jobs RI, Green Energy Consumers Alliance, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, and the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council.

Meanwhile, Revolution Wind announced on Jan. 1 it had already filed a supplemental complaint in U.S. District Court over the new stop-work order, asking for another preliminary injunction. In its statement, the company said it was still seeking to work constructively with the Trump administration toward a resolution, and that “the lease suspension order violates applicable law.”

At the time of the stop-work order, the company was weeks away from generating power. The project is over 85% complete, having installed 58 out of 65 offshore foundations and wind turbines. Both offshore substations are already constructed, and the export cable has been completely installed, according to the company.

The Revolution Wind project has been some 20 years in the making. Ever since the Block Island Wind Farm, completed in 2016, showed proof-of-concept for offshore wind, Rhode Island has been pursuing wind projects as an energy goal.

The project, once completed, is expected to provide the electrical grid with enough power for 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. This wind farm alone has supported 1,000 union jobs, contributing 2 million work hours to the project, with a supply chain extending to 40 different states.

As with the August pause, thousands of workers on the Revolution Wind project are now without a job. Rhode Island native and union painter Nick Reynolds said he spent a large amount of time and energy getting the training and certifications necessary to work on offshore wind projects.

“I had a great job in a promising new industry with a lot of potential for future growth,” Reynolds said. “Now I’m searching for construction work in the dead of winter with 12,000 other human beings.”

On Sept 22, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s first stop-work order against Revolution Wind. Ørsted, one of the companies behind the offshore wind project, said it was losing $2 million a day during the month-long pause from the first stop-work order.

The project is going to be vital if Rhode Island hopes to meet the mandates of the Act on Climate, the law that requires the state to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and other environmental laws. The state’s renewable energy standard requires the state to source its electricity entirely from renewable sources within the next seven years, and future offshore wind projects like Revolution Wind were expected to play a large part in that.

The stop-work order is coming at a time when energy prices are still sky-high, and many Rhode Islanders are feeling the pinch of a higher cost of living than just a few years ago, with no additional energy generation coming even from existing natural gas or other sources.

“It is entirely an administration that refuses to faithfully execute the laws, and they’re doing that with the motive to take money from Rhode Island ratepayers pockets and shovel it up to the fossil fuel units that wouldn’t otherwise be running,” Whitehouse said.