US judge allows last of five offshore wind projects halted by Trump to proceed

All five offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration in December can resume construction after a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that cleared Denmark’s Ørsted to proceed with its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York.

Ørsted’s request for an injunction blocking the interior department order was the fifth brought by an offshore wind developer since the 22 December pause on five leases. The agency stopped work on the multibillion-dollar facilities due to national security concerns around radar interference.

An interior department spokesperson said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.

Ørsted said in a statement it would resume work immediately but continue with the underlying lawsuit challenging the interior department’s stop-work order. It added it was trying to find a solution to the matter by cooperating with the US administration.

Ørsted has spent or committed more than $7bn to date to build Sunrise Wind, the company said. If the stop-work order is not lifted by 6 February, the project risks losing access to a specialized vessel needed to complete installation of an offshore cable, Ørsted attorneys argued at the hearing.

The argument was similar to those made at four other hearings in recent weeks.

“Every court to review this question has now found that the loss of specialized vessels and resulting delays amounts to irreparable harm. I agree,” Royce Lamberth, a US district court judge, said before granting Ørsted’s request.

Lamberth also granted the injunction for Ørsted’s Revolution Wind, off the coast of Rhode Island, in January.

An attorney for the justice department argued that the suspension was justified by new, classified information about risks to national security from the operation of offshore windfarms.

Offshore wind developers have faced repeated disruptions under Donald Trump, who has said he finds wind turbines ugly, expensive and inefficient.

Analyst Jacob Pedersen from Denmark’s Sydbank said political risks remained high.

“Even with the lifting of the construction freeze, there is an imminent risk that Sunrise Wind will face a very difficult and turbulent period in relation to the Trump administration’s obstruction,” Pedersen said in a client note.

Sunrise Wind is located 30 miles (48km) east of Long Island, New York, and is about 45% complete, according to Ørsted. Once built, the project will produce enough power for nearly 600,000 homes. It is expected to start operating as soon as October.