The wind farms are collectively worth US$25 billion according to an offshore wind advocacy group
[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump’s attempts to torpedo offshore wind farms suffered a second blow this week when a federal judge ruled on Thursday (Jan 15) that construction for the US$5 billion Empire Wind project off Long Island in New York could resume.
Judge Carl J Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said that the Interior Department’s order to stop work on Empire Wind would likely cause irreparable harm. The government last month halted construction on that project and four others along the East Coast, citing unspecified national security concerns.
Attorneys for Empire Wind had told the court that the project, which is about 60 per cent complete, would face “existential risk” if it was further delayed. Equinor, the Norwegian energy giant developing the wind farm, said that if construction did not restart in the coming days, it would lose more than US$1 billion in contracts and that a specialised ship needed for construction would set sail for another project.
“Empire Wind has demonstrated that it will suffer irreparable harm,” said Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump.
He said that the company was likely to succeed in some of its arguments, including the assertion that the Trump administration did not follow the law when it halted work on the wind farm. The Justice Department offered “no substantive proof” that it gave Empire Wind any notice or opportunity to be heard before it stopped work on the project, as the law requires, Nichols said.
It was the second time this week that a judge has thwarted the Trump administration’s effort to stop the five projects being built by different companies along the East Coast. On Monday, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in the same court that Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine project off Rhode Island and Connecticut, could continue construction while legal proceedings move forward.
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The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Equinor said that the company would “now focus on safely restarting construction activities” at Empire Wind. It also said it would try to work with the Trump administration “to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution” of its operations.
Groups opposed to offshore wind urged the Interior Department to appeal the decision.
Days before Christmas, the Trump administration ordered companies to halt work on Empire Wind and Revolution Wind, as well as Sunrise Wind off the coast of New York, Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the Interior Department, said at the time that construction must stop for at least 90 days while the administration reviewed classified security issues.
The wind farms are collectively worth US$25 billion and are expected to power more than 2.5 million buildings and create thousands of jobs, according to Turn Forward, an offshore wind advocacy group. In addition to the developers of the projects, several states have sued to block the administration order and restart construction.
Trump has repeatedly said that he would block new wind projects, saying without evidence that “they ruin the environment; they kill the birds; they kill the whales”.
During his first month in office, Trump issued an executive order temporarily halting all leases and permits for wind energy on federal land and in US waters, which he said “may lead to grave harm”. In December, a federal judge struck down that order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious”.
In April, the Trump administration broadened its focus beyond new offshore wind projects and turned its attention to wind farms that had already been granted permits by the Biden administration and were in various stages of construction.
The Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Empire Wind, but it was reversed after weeks of negotiations with Gov Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat. Then in August, the agency ordered Revolution Wind to halt construction, and in September Lamberth reversed that decision.
“I am sick and tired of having to go to court time and time and time again to stop these decisions,” Hochul said on Thursday. “They are designed to do nothing other than hurt workers, hurt our economy and hurt our energy future.”
All five wind projects had gone through years of environmental reviews before getting permits, which allowed the developers to secure financing, sign contracts to sell electricity to states and utilities, hire workers, lease equipment and begin construction.
The five wind farms were pioneers in what president Joe Biden had hoped would be a new era of offshore wind power in the United States to help phase out fossil fuels and tackle climate change.
Supporters of wind power said they believed the Trump administration’s current claims of national security concerns were a pretext for stopping an energy source that Trump dislikes.
Hochul on Monday said that her response to the Trump administration’s order was: “I am 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, and I need a briefing right now.” She added: “Lo and behold, they had no answer”.
On Wednesday, Ann Navaro, an attorney for Empire Wind, told Nichols that the Trump administration had not shared any details about why it now considers offshore wind a security threat. Equinor and two other developers, Orsted and Dominion, have asked the Trump administration to give classified briefings to representatives who hold national security clearances. But to date, the Pentagon has not granted these requests, the companies said in legal filings.
Vineyard Wind announced Thursday that it, too, is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction challenging the Trump administration. A hearing date has not yet been set by the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Sunrise Wind and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project also have similar cases pending against the Trump administration. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia will hear the Virginia case on Friday. NYTIMES
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