Judge allows offshore windfarm halted by Trump to resume construction

A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would probably kill the project in a matter of days.

District judge Carl J Nichols, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the merits of the government’s order to suspend the project. He faulted the government for not responding to key points in Empire Wind’s court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure.

Norwegian company Equinor owns Empire Wind. Spokesperson David Schoetz said they welcomed the court’s decision and would continue to work in collaboration with authorities. It is the second developer to prevail in court against the administration this week.

The Trump administration froze five big offshore wind projects on the east coast days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Trump has targeted offshore wind from his first days back in the White House, most recently calling windfarms “losers” that lose money, destroy the landscape and kill birds.

Developers and states sued seeking to block the order. Large, ocean-based windfarms are the linchpin of plans to shift to renewable energy in east coast states that have limited land for onshore wind turbines or solar arrays.

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, applauded the court decision, telling reporters the projects had been “stopped under the bogus pretense of national security”.

“When I heard this I said one thing: I’m the governor of New York, if there is a national security threat off the coast of New York, you need to tell me what it is. I want a briefing right now. Well, lo and behold, they had no answer,” she said.

On Monday, a judge ruled that the Danish energy company Orsted could resume its project to serve Rhode Island and Connecticut. Senior judge Royce Lamberth said the government did not sufficiently explain the need for a complete stop to construction. That windfarm, called Revolution Wind, is nearly complete. It is expected to meet roughly 20% of the electricity needs in Rhode Island, the smallest state, and about 5% of Connecticut’s electricity needs.

Orsted is also suing over the pause of its Sunrise Wind project for New York, with a hearing still to be set. Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, plans to ask a judge on Friday to block the administration’s order so it can resume construction, too.

Trump has also dismissed offshore wind developments as ugly, but the Empire project is about 14 miles (22.5km) offshore and the Sunrise project is about 30 miles offshore.

The fifth paused project is Vineyard Wind, under construction in Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind LLC, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, joined the rest of the developers in challenging the administration on Thursday. They filed a complaint in district court in Boston.

In contrast to the halted action in the US, the global offshore wind market is growing, with China leading the world in new installations. Nearly all of the new electricity added to the grid in 2024 was renewable. The British government said on Wednesday it had secured a record 8.4 gigawatts of offshore wind in Europe’s largest offshore wind auction, enough clean electricity to power more than 12m homes.

Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, said the Trump administration was right to stop construction on national security grounds. He urged officials to immediately appeal the adverse rulings and seek to halt all work pending appellate review. Opponents of offshore wind projects are particularly vocal and well-organized in New Jersey.

Empire Wind is 60% complete and designed to power more than 500,000 homes. Equinor said the project was in jeopardy due to the limited availability of specialized vessels, as well as heavy financial losses.

During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Nichols said the government’s main security concern seemed to be over operation of the wind turbines, not construction, although the government pushed back on that contention.

In presenting the government’s case, associate attorney general Stanley Woodward Jr was skeptical of the perfect storm of horrible events that Empire Wind said would derail their entire project if construction did not resume. He disagreed with the contention that the government’s main concern was over operation.

“I don’t see how you can make this distinction,” Woodward said. He likened it to a nuclear project being built that presented a national security risk. The government would oppose it being built, and it turning on.