President Trump’s effort to kill the nascent offshore wind industry is starting to resemble his fruitless effort to overturn his re-election loss in 2020, as a federal judge on Monday handed him a fifth consecutive loss in court challenges to the administration’s December order pausing construction of five wind farms along the East Coast.
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the preliminary injunction sought by Sunrise Wind L.L.C., regarding the suspension order issued by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The move allows the construction of Sunrise Wind in federal waters about 30 miles east of Montauk Point to resume immediately while the underlying lawsuit challenging the administration’s order progresses.
The 924-megawatt wind farm’s export cable is to make landfall at Smith Point County Park in Shirley and is to generate electricity sufficient to power nearly 600,000 residences.
“Sunrise Wind will determine how it may be possible to work with the U.S. administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution,” a statement from Orsted, the developer, reads. “With safety as the top priority, the project will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible to deliver affordable, reliable power to the State of New York.”
The decision follows successful challenges to the administration’s December order by the developers of four other wind farms. These include the Empire Wind 1 farm, a 54-turbine, 810-megawatt project being built by the Norwegian company Equinor and which is to send electricity to New York City; the Revolution Wind farm, a joint venture between Orsted and Skyborn Renewables that is to send electricity sufficient to power 350,000 residences in Connecticut and Rhode Island; Vineyard Wind, jointly developed by Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which is nearly complete and has already sent electricity to Massachusetts, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, under development by Dominion Energy.
Mr. Trump has long been hostile to wind farms and has stated multiple falsehoods in criticizing their safety and effectiveness. On the first day of his second term, he issued a memorandum withdrawing all outer continental shelf areas from offshore wind leasing and directing a review of permitting practices, which halted new approval. In April, the Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Empire Wind 1, though it was later lifted. In August, the administration initiated investigations into imported turbine components and signaled its intent to revoke approvals for other wind projects.
Following the December order, for which the Interior Department cited national security concerns, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts demanded that the federal government rescind the pause, and their developers sued the government. With Monday’s ruling, construction resumes on all of the targeted wind farms.
“Today’s court ruling allowing work on Sunrise Wind to resume is a big win for New York workers, families, and our future,” Governor Hochul said in a statement. “It puts union workers back on the job, keeps billions in private investment in New York, and delivers the clean, reliable power our grid needs, especially as extreme weather becomes more frequent.”
The Trump administration, she continued, “tried to shut down this fully permitted project under a bogus claim of national security. But energy independence is national security. Under my administration, New York will remain a national clean energy leader and continue fighting to protect these projects and good-paying jobs against a hostile federal government.”
