The Trump administration was blocked for a fifth time in its bid to shut down U.S. offshore wind projects, when a U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction allowing developer Ørsted to resume work on its Sunrise Wind turbine array.
Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C. issued the order Monday afternoon, clearing the way for builders to continue the 924-megawatt rated project about 30 miles east of Montauk, N.Y. The ruling effectively brings a halt now to the administration’s Dec. 22 blanket stop-work order on wind projects already underway from southern New England to Virginia.
Judge Lamberth in January issued an injunction that allowed Ørsted to resume work on its Revolution Wind array, then more than 90% complete south of Rhode Island. In its Dec. 22 shutdown order the Department of Interior alleged that new, classified material dealing with national security called for suspending all five projects.
After reviewing the government’s claim under seal, Lamberth found it unpersuasive. “Purportedly new classified information does not constitute a sufficient explanation for the bureau’s decision to entirely stop work on the Sunrise Wind project,” the judge said.
Offshore wind developers and industry advocates have portrayed administration’s determination to block the projects as driven by President Trump’s longstanding personal objections to offshore and onshore wind energy, which he calls inefficient and environmentally harmful.
In court the wind companies have pointed to years of permit reviews for wind projects that examined concerns about military radar interference. Wind power advocates alleged the Dec. 22 stop-work order is a gambit to fulfill Trump’s campaign to shut down all projects, despite permitting work during the Biden and first Trump administrations.
