Massachusetts Port Cities Struggle as Offshore Wind Industry Stalls
Why It Matters
Massachusetts staked significant public funding and economic development plans on becoming a hub for the offshore wind industry. Two port cities — Salem and New Bedford — invested years of planning and tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure to capture that opportunity. With the industry now largely frozen, those investments are at risk of yielding far fewer jobs and far less economic activity than promised.
What Happened
Salem and New Bedford each positioned themselves as critical logistics bases for offshore wind construction, converting former fossil fuel plant sites into marine terminals intended to serve as staging and operations centers for turbine installation crews and equipment.
Salem’s planned offshore wind terminal — sited on 42 acres of vacant industrial land in the city’s harbor, including the footprint of a coal plant shuttered in 2014 — was designed to include two berths for wind project vessels. Construction there has stalled with no start date announced. Vineyard Wind 2, which had intended to use the Salem terminal as its port, remains without required permits.
In New Bedford, the Foss Marine Terminal has been operational but has had to redirect its business model. Rather than serving as a hub for offshore wind construction activity, the facility has shifted toward general cargo handling and marine construction work to generate revenue while wind projects remain in limbo.
“We were operating under a plan where, when the first wind farm reaches first electricity, it would start doing its operation and maintenance work out of our facility,” said Andrew Saunders, president of the New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal. With conditions changed, he added, the terminal has had to “pivot in order to generate revenue, and figure out something of a different identity.”
Sam Lambert, deputy chapter director for the Sierra Club’s Massachusetts chapter, described the unfulfilled promise plainly: “We expected a lot of jobs, like a lot of life-changing … career sustainable jobs that were going to come from this, and that’s what hasn’t materialized.”
By the Numbers
- $180 million — announced by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and state energy officials in December 2022 for ports and offshore wind infrastructure statewide
- $75 million — allocated to Salem and a wind services partner to convert the former coal plant site for terminal use
- $15 million — directed to New Bedford’s Foss Marine Terminal for redevelopment of a former power plant property
- 3,725 jobs — supported by Vineyard Wind 1 since the project began, according to the project’s most recent annual report, with 80 to 100 long-term operations and maintenance positions expected annually
- $2.3 million per day — losses reported by Vineyard Wind 1 developers in court filings during the period the project’s operations were shut down following a federal lease suspension
Zoom Out
The stall in Massachusetts reflects a broader national disruption to the offshore wind sector. Supply chain bottlenecks, elevated interest rates, and inflation raised project costs significantly during the Biden years. The Trump administration has compounded those pressures with executive orders halting new offshore wind leases, pausing existing lease agreements, and rescinding federal grants.
In January 2025, an executive order suspended new offshore wind leases on federal waters. A federal judge overturned that order in December 2025, but no new leases have since been issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Later that month, five wind projects — including three off Massachusetts — had their leases paused over national security concerns related to radar interference. Courts issued preliminary injunctions temporarily reversing those suspensions, but the delays have been costly. The difficulties facing Massachusetts’s maritime industry extend beyond the wind sector, underscoring the fragile state of the state’s coastal economy.
Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, described the cumulative effect as “a chilling effect on the industry,” and noted that observers expect conditions to remain difficult at least through the current administration.
Massachusetts had set a statutory goal under legislation signed in 2022 to procure 5,600 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by June 2027. Governor Maura Healey, who in 2024 pursued contracts with three offshore wind developers totaling 2,678 megawatts, now faces a significantly narrowed path to meeting those targets.
What’s Next
The near-term outlook for Salem’s terminal construction depends heavily on whether pending wind projects secure permits and whether federal lease restrictions are lifted or remain tied up in litigation. New Bedford’s terminal is expected to continue pursuing alternative revenue streams while monitoring conditions. Industry observers say meaningful progress on new offshore wind construction is unlikely before a change in federal administration.