Attendees during a media tour of the Revolution Wind construction hub at the Port of Providence in Providence, Rhode Island, US, on Thursday, June 13, 2024.
Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge on Monday allowed Danish renewable energy company Orsted to resume construction on an offshore wind farm that the Trump administration had blocked.
The judge’s decision is a setback for President Donald Trump’s effort to shut down the nascent offshore wind industry in the U.S.
The Interior Department had ordered Orsted on Aug. 22 to halt construction on Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The project is fully permited and 80% complete. It would provide power for more than 350,000 homes.
Orsted and its partner Skyborn Renewables had asked the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to halt Interior’s stop-work order, arguing that it was aribtrary, capricious, unlawful and “issued in bad faith.”
“Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” Orsted said in a statement Monday after the ruling.
While the judge granted the injuction request, a full opinion has yet to be filed.
Trump has targeted the wind power industry since his first day in office, when he banned new leases for offshore wind farms. But the industry had hoped that fully permitted wind projects, particularly those that are already under construciton, would be allowed to proceed.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier this month that he is “taking a deep look” at five offshore wind projects in the U.S. that are under construction. Burgum made clear that Trump wants to shut down the offshore wind industry.
“Under this administration, there is not a future for offshore wind because it is too expensive and not reliable enough,” Burgum told an audience at the Gastech conference in Milan, Italy on Sept. 11.
