Days after Gov. Kathy Hochul and the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts demanded that the federal government rescind the Trump administration’s pause of leases for five offshore wind farms under construction, developers of four of them sued the government in hope of reversing the latest move to kill the nascent industry.
On Dec. 22, the federal Interior Department asserted that wind farms could interfere with radar systems in justifying a stop-work order for the five wind farms. Mr. Trump has long been hostile to wind farms and has stated multiple falsehoods in criticizing their safety and effectiveness.
Earlier in December, a federal judge struck down the president’s executive order issued a year ago, on the first day of his second administration, halting approvals of all wind power projects in federal waters. New York had led a coalition of 17 states in challenging the executive order, and the judge sided with them, stating that the federal government had not provided a reasoned explanation of its decision.
Last Thursday, Orsted, the Danish energy company that developed and operates the South Fork Wind farm in a federal lease area around 30 miles off Montauk Point, filed a complaint in United States District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Dec. 22 lease suspension order for its Revolution Wind farm, located in federal waters about 15 nautical miles southeast of Point Judith, R.I. The wind farm, which is to send electricity sufficient to power 350,000 residences in Connecticut and Rhode Island, is around 87 percent complete, according to Orsted. Prior to the stop-work order, it was expected to start delivering electricity this year.
The lease suspension order “violates applicable law,” according to a statement from the developer. As with an August 2025 stop-work order by the federal government, “the Revolution Wind Project faces substantial harm from a continuation of the lease suspension order. As a result, litigation is a necessary step to protect the rights of the project.” All required federal and state permits were secured in 2023, the developer noted, following reviews that began more than nine years ago.
Orsted “engaged in years-long consultation with the U.S. Department of Defense Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to address potential impacts to national security and defense capabilities from construction through to operation of the project,” according to Orsted. “Those consultations resulted in a fully executed formal agreement between the Department of War, the Department of the Air Force, and Revolution Wind outlining mitigation measures by the project.”
Orsted’s Sunrise Wind farm, under construction adjacent to the South Fork Wind farm site, is also subject to the lease suspension order. It is to generate electricity to power almost 600,000 New York residences when fully operational next year. It is nearly 45 percent complete, according to Orsted, with 44 of 84 monopile foundations installed as well as the offshore converter station. Construction of the onshore electric infrastructure is substantially complete and near-shore export cables have been installed.
On Tuesday, it too was the plaintiff in a complaint challenging the lease suspension order, the language in the developer’s statement mirroring that for Revolution Wind. The project “faces substantial harm from a continuation of the lease suspension order,” Orsted said. “As a result, litigation is a necessary step to protect the rights of the project.”
On Friday, Equinor, a Norwegian energy company, followed Orsted’s lead in challenging the Interior Department’s order to suspend its Empire Wind project, which is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to deliver electricity to the state. Empire Wind is more than 60 percent complete and when operational is to provide electricity sufficient to power around 500,000 residences.
The lease suspension “is in Equinor’s view unlawful and threatens the progress of ongoing work with significant implications for the project,” according to a statement issued by the developer. Its preliminary injunction filing “is necessary to allow the project to continue as planned during this critical period of execution and avoid additional commercial and financing impacts that are likely to occur should the order remain effective.”
Like Orsted, Equinor “has coordinated closely with numerous federal officials on national security reviews” since its lease for the project was executed in 2017, the developer said, “and has complied with relevant national security-related requirements identified as part of the regulatory process.” In addition, “Empire meets regularly with officials charged with oversight of security issues for the project, including weekly meetings with the U.S. Coast Guard and other marine first responders.”
The Interior Department had ordered that construction on Empire Wind be stopped in April, but reversed that position weeks later and following negotiations with Governor Hochul. Ken Lovett, Governor Hochul’s senior communications adviser on energy and environment, told The Star on Monday that “we will continue to aggressively push back against the latest irrational orders impacting Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind. Once completed, New York’s fully permitted offshore wind projects will provide needed power at a time when we are facing potential energy shortages downstate as soon as this summer and create thousands of good-paying union jobs while helping secure our energy independence.”
Dominion Energy, which is developing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, filed a lawsuit the day after the Interior Department’s lease suspension was announced. It seeks a temporary restraining order so that construction can proceed. Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which are jointly developing the Vineyard Wind 1 farm off the coast of Massachusetts, have not announced legal action to date. Construction of that wind farm is nearly complete, and the installation has already sent electricity to Massachusetts. The Interior Department’s order to pause construction does, however, allow Vineyard Wind 1 to continue producing electricity.
The South Fork Wind farm, the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, faced strenuous opposition during its planning and permitting stages by commercial fishermen and some Wainscott residents who sought to prevent its export cable from making landfall in that hamlet. Offshore wind now faces a sustained assault from a far more powerful entity, the federal government. “We are exploring all our options,” Mr. Lovett said, “to reverse this continued nonsensical attack by the White House on the offshore wind industry.”
