Alex Cornell du Houx, Former Maine State Rep. Alex Cornell du Houx, D-Brunswick, also served in the Marine Corps infantry and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is speaking at the Port of Humboldt as the President of Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA). Cornell du Houx addressed a group of lawmakers, and stakeholders in Humboldt, CA during an EOPA Offshore Wind Round Table they hosted to hear from the community about the port’s offshore wind plans. Afterwards they were taken on a tour of the harbor by boat. (Ben Collings photo)
The Biden administration adopted a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.
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By Roz Brown
May 8, 2025
The Trump administration has started canceling climate-related projects funded by Congress during the Biden administration, and elected officials want lawmakers to protect hard-won progress on those projects. As parts of the Inflation Reduction Act and environmental regulations are overturned, the bipartisan group “Elected Officials to Protect America” wants to see more accountability.
Pat Spearman, former Nevada Sen. president pro-tempore and Army lieutenant Lt. Col. Ret. , said oil and gas plays a big part in current military entanglements, which take a toll on service members.
“It’s about the people that we lose,” she said. “Six out of every 10 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were somehow related to oil: guarding it, moving it, offloading it, something. How many more must die because we can’t curb our appetite for fossil fuels?”
An executive order by President Donald Trump on April 8th instructed the Department of Justice to eliminate the independent constitutional authority of every state to govern its own climate laws.
At the same time, the administration has taken multiple actions to boost oil and gas production. Former State Rep. Alex Cornell du Houx, D-Brunswick, also served in the Marine Corps infantry and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He stressed the nation’s energy independence requires moving away from fossil fuels.
“We cannot be energy secure as long as we are dependent on fossil fuels, because if you took that same investment and put it in offshore wind, offshore wind could power the U.S. twice over and that’s an abundant source of energy and doesn’t depend on a foreign entity, particularly dictators,” he said.
The White House is actively working against offshore wind power and government rebates for electric vehicles. New Mexico Rep. Debbie Sariñana, D-Albuquerque, said her large rural state was set to receive $38 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to install electric vehicle charging stations. $12 million went toward that goal until the funds were blocked.
“Phase Two was $26 million, and it was frozen, so these small towns that we we’re going to next, they were looking forward to having a charging station, have some economic development from this and it has just been frozen, so that has hurt us quite a bit,” she explained.
Daniel Ramos, vice mayor of Adelanto, California and a Navy veteran, said Congress should not cut climate crisis mitigation programs such as Justice40, which allocates 40% of its funding to low-income communities overburdened by air and water pollution. He also said the funding will help develop offshore wind and thereby improve air quality for justice40 communities and all people in California.
“The Justice40 initiative, along with the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provide crucial federal resources for clean water, sustainable infrastructure including offshore wind development,” Ramos explained. “We must actively advocate to protect and maximize these investments for all communities.”