One of the three companies developing a wind farm off Maryland’s coast will seemingly not be impacted by President Donald Trump’s initial executive order on the subject, experts say.

That’s because the company, U.S. Wind, already received all of its federal permits for a farm off the coast of Ocean City, finishing the process in the closing months of President Joe Biden’s administration. State permits remain, and on Friday, U.S. Wind checked one off the list. The Maryland Public Service Commission approved a critical power purchase deal for the company, allowing it to sell “offshore wind renewable energy credits,” to utilities. “While questions have arisen regarding offshore wind development in a number of places, the Commission’s analysis through the independent consultant and our hearings demonstrated the importance of this project in providing emission-free energy, jobs, economic opportunity and cost benefits to Maryland ratepayers,” wrote Commission chairman Frederick H. Hoover, in a statement. According to the Commission, the project complies with limits on ratepayer bill increases, capped near a dollar per month for residential customers.

Trump’s order only temporarily stopped offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects, and triggered a review by his interior secretary. The other two wind companies with leases in the Atlantic Ocean offshore of Maryland and Delaware — Orsted and Equinor — have yet to obtain all federal permits, and could therefore face direct impacts from Trump’s order. Both companies declined to comment.

In a statement, U.S. Wind officials said they are still reviewing Trump’s order to determine its “full application,” but Nancy Sopko, the company’s vice president of external affairs, struck an optimistic tone.

“U.S. Wind’s projects are poised to deliver on the President’s promise of achieving American energy dominance, especially now that we have received all of our federal permits,” Sopko said.

The company is awaiting state-level decisions, however, Sopko wrote. That includes a final permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment, expected in March, Sopko said.

U.S. Wind “will be at the forefront of an American manufacturing renaissance that relies heavily on American steel,” Sopko said. The company is developing a steel facility for turbines at the former site of Bethlehem steel in Baltimore County, now called Tradepoint Atlantic. The U.S. Wind project, according to its Maryland PSC application, is poised to deliver 1,710 megawatts with turbines about 10 miles from the Ocean City, Maryland shoreline. The project, set to be developed in several phases, will include 114 turbines in total.

The first phase could come online in 2029, according to current projections. Future lease auctions that might have occurred in Maryland’s territory, the Central Atlantic, were also halted by Trump’s order, however. The last such auction impacting Maryland’s coast, held by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, occurred in August, with Equinor, a Norwegian energy firm, winning out.

Shortly thereafter, BOEM signaled its intention to hold another lease auction in the Central Atlantic — which includes Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina — by opening a public comment period.

The Moore administration has backed the effort to find more eligible lease areas in Maryland’s Atlantic waters.

Rebecca Rehr, director of climate policy and justice at the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, said she is “remaining cautiously optimistic” about the future of offshore wind, particularly given the example of the U.S. Wind project.

Since Trump’s first term, the industry has advanced, which will make it harder to halt, even with backups at the federal level, she said.

“It’s a very different situation than four or eight years ago, when it was easier to say, there hasn’t been as much progress,” Rehr said. “But there has been significant progress all up and down the coast.” That being said, Maryland’s goal, of procuring 8.5 gigawatts worth of offshore wind energy by 2031, is likely in danger, Rehr said.

“We’re not going to let that impede the progress we can make, given the circumstances,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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