A new administration means a chance to see how many campaign promises come to fruition. So far, President Trump has held up his end of the bargain.

In one of his first actions as president, Mr. Trump kept his “no windmills” promise by issuing a memorandum temporarily stopping offshore wind energy leasing on federal waters and halting approvals, permits and loans for all wind projects pending a comprehensive review.

It’s time to say goodbye to the Biden administration’s push for wind energy, a plan that risked steering America toward an unreliable energy path.

Reliable energy is essential for powering American industries, especially with the explosive growth of data centers driven by artificial intelligence. However, wind turbines are unreliable, as output fluctuates based on unpredictable weather rather than consumer demand.

Wind power operated at full capacity only 33% of the time in 2023, dipping to 26% during the summer. In contrast, weather-independent sources—nuclear, natural gas and coal—operate at 93%, 60% and 42% of their full capacity, respectively.

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Wind turbines’ unreliability means that they require backup. This reality effectively forces consumers to unnecessarily pay thrice: once for wind energy, again for backup power, and renewable energy subsidies.

This dramatically increases consumers’ costs. One metric, the Levelized Full System Costs of Electricity, estimates that wind energy costs at least twice as much as nuclear energy and seven times as much as natural gas.

Countries dependent on wind power pay the price for its unreliability and high cost.

In Britain, for example, when a recent drop in temperatures drove up power demand, wind generation could not keep up, plummeting from 40% of the electricity mix early in the morning to below 10% for the rest of the day.

In response, gas plants charged exorbitant prices to remain profitable as their operating hours decreased because of renewables; one station sold power for more than $6,000 per megawatt hour.

Ultimately, these high costs were passed on to British consumers, who already pay some of the highest electricity prices globally.

This is exactly the sort of energy crisis that Mr. Trump hopes to avoid.

This is just one of many examples disproving the rosy narrative promoted by renewable advocates that wind power is cheap. Likewise, portraying wind turbines as “green” is another misleading notion.

Proponents of wind power say turbines are environmentally friendly because they harness the wind to generate carbon-free electricity.

However, turbines impose non-generation costs on the environment, which wind advocates often overlook or ignore. Wind farms require 10 times the amount of critical minerals as natural gas power plants and 1.6 times as much as nuclear power plants.

Wind farms also require vast expanses of land. For wind farms to generate the same amount of electricity as a typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor, they require about 100 times more land.

>>> Trump Energy Plan Will Avoid Europe’s Energy Disaster

On these lands, wind turbines kill 1 million birds a year, according to the American Bird Conservancy. In the seas, offshore wind activities often inflict “Level B harassment” on marine mammals, disrupting their natural behavioral patterns.

National defense concerns further complicate the case for wind turbines.

In November, Sweden rejected 13 proposed offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea because wind farms would reduce the military’s reaction time to a potential missile attack by 50% and interfere with sensors critical for detecting submarines. Other countries, including Estonia, Japan and Taiwan, have expressed similar concerns.

Mr. Trump has valid reasons for opposing subsidies for wind and other renewables, which (in the form of production tax credits and investment tax credits) are projected to cost U.S. taxpayers over $400 billion from 2025 through 2034.

It’s illogical to continue funding renewable subsidies that will lead America toward European energy scarcity. Instead of continuing Biden’s heavily subsidized, unreliable energy plan, the Trump administration should pursue energy deregulation and eliminate subsidies for all energy sources.

This would create a level playing field where the most competitive energy sources—wind, solar, nuclear and natural gas—can power America’s future.