“America’s energy policy should be grounded in facts, fiscal responsibility, and the national interest — not ideology or politics,″ they wrote.
One of the lawmakers is Rep. Jen Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot who represents a coastal district in Virginia where an $11.5 billion wind farm is expected to create 1,000 jobs. Her support for an initiative targeted by Trump shows the scrambled politics of clean energy in an election year where Republicans are at risk of losing the House.
“Her advocacy did nothing,” Luria said. Kiggans did not respond to requests for comment.
Solar farms are not much better in his mind.
“You go around and you see all these things that are 3 miles long by 3 miles wide and you say what the hell is that,” Trump said at the White House last summer.
Luria said Kiggans “voted for a bill to make energy more expensive.”
In a Facebook post after the bill was passed in July, Kiggans said her vote “wasn’t about politics — it was about overall results.”
“I had ONE vote, and I voted YES on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act not because it was perfect but because it delivers permanent tax relief for families & small businesses, rebuilds our Navy & invests in national defense,” she wrote.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said front-line Republicans have been put in a difficult position.
“Kiggans is not the only Republican being squeezed” as Trump focuses on his own priorities and the country faces economic headwinds exacerbated by the war with Iran, he said. Although few want to risk upsetting the president, Farnsworth said, “in coastal Virginia politics, there’s not much upside to opposing wind.”
Once finished, the 176-turbine project could deliver 2.6 gigawatts of power to the grid — enough to supply more than 660,000 homes — at a time when Virginia faces growing energy demand from an expanding hub of artificial intelligence data centers.
“There’s an opportunity here for Hampton Roads to be a national leader in offshore wind,” said Andrew Nissman, a spokesman for the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, which has trained maritime workers for the project.
Nissman declined to comment on the congressional race, saying, ”as with any stop-and-start challenge, it’s important the project is moving forward.”
While the wind farm is now partially online, “Kiggans nearly cost her constituents this project by standing with an administration dead set on dismantling the offshore wind industry and voting to repeal critical clean energy tax credits last year,” said Dan Taylor, Southeast regional field manager for the BlueGreen Alliance, which coordinates labor unions and environmental groups.
“Kiggans claims to prioritize jobs, lower energy costs for Virginians and reducing emissions,” Taylor added. “Yet she voted to kill jobs, skyrocket energy costs to families and increase the emissions driving climate change.”
