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Trump attacks UK offshore wind in call to open North Sea to oil majors

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US president-elect Donald Trump has attacked UK offshore wind amid a row over North Sea energy production.

Trump criticised the UK government’s increased windfall tax on oil and gas production as Texas-based fossil fuels company Apache announced plans to exit the North Sea.

“The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of windmills,” Trump posted on his Truth social media platform.

Apache announced it would stop all UK production in the North Sea by December 2029 because the windfall tax had made operations there “uneconomic”.

As oil and gas prices started to rise in 2020, companies were seeing bumper profits. As a result the windfall tax, also known as the energy profits levy, was introduced. It was last increased in November 2024, to 38%.

Trump has been a long-time opponent of wind power – or “windmills”, as he calls them. Since losing a 2015 legal battle to stop an offshore wind farm being developed near his golf course in Scotland, Trump has made claims with little evidence that wind power causes cancer, kills birds and drives up the price of bacon.

He has pledged to stop the development of offshore wind “from day one” in the White House.

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