Sheldon Whitehouse
Role at the time: U.S. senator from Rhode Island and ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Condemned
Response to this claim
Sheldon Whitehouse characterized the national-security rationale for the December offshore-wind stop-work orders as a pretext.
“The new pretext was national security risks that had supposedly emerged in the previous thirty days.”
Read the official statement (opens in a new tab)Whitehouse Opening Statement at Permitting Reform Hearing · Sheldon WhitehouseRemarks as prepared for delivery, paragraphs discussing the August and December stop-work orders
Whitehouse's prepared remarks criticized both Revolution Wind halts, disputed the national-security justification and explained his pause in permitting-reform negotiations.
Why we used this label
The reference point is the federal halt to Revolution Wind construction. Whitehouse denounces the stop-work orders as unjustified attacks and disputes their stated rationale, so the statement condemns the action.