Offshore wind developers and states are suing the Trump administration He ordered her to stop working for at least 90 days at five large-scale projects under construction off the East Coast.
Norway’s Equinor and Danish energy company Orsted are the latest to challenge the suspension order, with limited liability companies for their projects filing civil suits late Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Connecticut and Rhode Island filed their own requests in that federal court Monday for a preliminary injunction.
The administration announced on December 22 It suspended leases for five offshore wind projects due to national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal details about those concerns.
It was President Donald Trump Hostile to renewable energy Technologies that produce electricity cleanly, especially offshore wind, have replaced them It prioritized oil, coal and natural gas, which emit carbon pollution when burned.
Interior Department spokesman Matt Middleton said Wednesday that Trump has directed the agency to manage public lands and waters for multiple uses, energy development, conservation, and national defense. Middleton said pausing large-scale offshore wind construction is “a critical step to protect America’s security, prevent conflicts with military readiness and maritime operations and ensure responsible stewardship of our oceans.”
“We will not sacrifice national security or economic stability for projects that have no meaning for America’s future,” Middleton said in a statement.
Equinor owns Empire Wind and Orsted owns Sunrise Wind, major offshore wind farms in New York. Empire Wind LLC asked the court for urgent consideration, saying the project faces “potential termination” if construction does not resume by January 16. It said the order disrupts a tightly designed construction schedule that relies on ships with limited availability, delaying costs and causing an existential threat to project financing.
Ørsted is also asking the judge to vacate and vacate the order. The company says it spent billions of dollars on the Sunrise Wind project, relying on properly issued permits from the federal government. Her team met weekly with the Coast Guard throughout 2025, and this week, with representatives from other agencies frequently in attendance, and no one raised national security concerns, she said in the filing.
The administration order temporarily suspended leases for those two projects, as well as the Vineyard Wind project under construction in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind in Virginia.
Dominion Energy Virginia, which develops Virginia offshore windswas the first to file a lawsuit. She’s asking a judge to block the order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious” and unconstitutional.
Orsted is building Revolution Wind with its joint venture partner Skyborn Renewables. They have filed a complaint about the application on behalf of the project.
The submission from Connecticut and Rhode Island seeks to allow work on Revolution Wind to continue.
“Every day this project is halted costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated energy bills when families need relief most,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “Revolution Wind has been vetted and approved, and the Trump administration has yet to uncover any evidence to counter this comprehensive and meticulous process.”
Avangrid is a joint owner with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners of the Vineyard Wind project. They have not publicly stated whether they plan to join the rest of the developers in challenging management.
The Trump administration had previously halted work on both Empire Wind and Revolution Wind. In April, I stopped building in Empire WindHe accused the Biden administration of rushing the permits. Then he allowed work to resume after a month. Equinor is done Empire Wind’s federal lease In March 2017, early in Trump’s first term. Final federal approval was in February 2024.
It was work on the Revolution Wind project that was nearing completion Paused on August 22 What the Office of Ocean Energy Management said were national security concerns. A month later, a federal judge ruled that the project could resume, citing… Irreversible harm to developers and the apparent likelihood of success based on the merits of their claim.
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