Wind power developers pulled off a hat trick Jan. 16 in their fight against the Trump administration, with a third federal court injunction allowing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to resume construction work.
Dominion Energy won that temporary delay of the Dec. 22 stop-work order the Department of the Interior aimed at five ongoing East Coast wind turbine arrays. Its 2.3-GW, 176-generator project would be the nation’s largest — if it ever gets finished.
Dueling Interior Department orders and federal court decisions have kept the U.S. offshore wind industry in ongoing suspense since President Trump one year ago acted on his campaign promise to end projects “on day one” of his second presidency.
An early move against Equinor’s Empire Wind project off New York was abruptly rescinded in May, after reports that the Interior Department was horse-trading with New York state for a natural gas pipeline.
Opponents of wind projects were whipsawed by those changing legal and political fortunes and insisted the Trump administration must hew to total opposition. When the Dec. 22 stop-work order was announced by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Fox News, some exulted that “it’s over!”
But it was just starting over again. Ørsted’s Revolution Wind off southern New England and Empire Wind both won temporary injunctions. Developers of Vineyard Wind, nearly complete off southern Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit Jan. 15, and Sunrise Wind was expected to deliver its own impending court action.
With 44 turbines built, Vineyard Wind’s lawsuit attempts to keep alive a project that has recovered from near-disaster before. A turbine blade there fractured in July 2024, spilling 57 tons of foam and fiberglass debris into the ocean to wash up on Nantucket’s shores.
The blade failure led to a lengthy shutdown of the 804-MW-rated project. In July 2025, turbine manufacturer GE Vernova agreed to a $10.5 million settlement with Nantucket town officials to cover cleanup and other costs related to the accident.
One Nantucket critic in 2024 dubbed it “offshore wind’s version of Three Mile Island.” Now, Vineyard Wind is still alive, and again in an existential struggle.
