A U.S. district court judge has issued a preliminary injunction against an order by the Trump administration halting Empire Wind, enabling the company to resume construction on the massive $5 billion offshore wind project off the coast of New York.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said that the order could cause the company to “suffer irreparable harm,” that “threatens Empire Wind’s entire existence.”
The order – part of an announced pause by the Trump administration in December of the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the U.S. on national security grounds – marks the second time over the past year that the administration has forced work to shut down on the Empire Wind project, with the initial order in April 2025, subsequently reversed in May, made on the basis that “the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
The ruling is the second to be issued against the administration’s move, Ørsted and BlackRock’s infrastructure investment unit Global Infrastructure Partners’ Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island provided with a preliminary junction earlier this week.
The pause on leases marked the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to stop the development of renewable energy projects, starting with a Presidential Memorandum signed by Trump on his first day in office, indefinitely halting all federal approvals for wind energy projects. The order was recently struck down by a U.S. federal court, which ruled that it was “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.”
Equinor filed its lawsuit shortly after the administration’s order, noting that the company has already invested more than $4 billion in the project to date, stating that it views the order as unlawful, and warning that it “threatens the progress of ongoing work with significant implications for the project.”
Located 24 – 48 kilometers Southeast of Long Island, Empire Wind 1 is anticipated to be the first offshore wind project to connect into the New York City grid, with a contracted capacity of 810 MW, anticipated to power 500,000 homes with renewable energy. The project is already more than 60% complete.
The preliminary injunction will allow construction activities on the project to resume, while the lawsuit challenging the order proceeds.
In a statement released following the ruling, Equinor said:
“Empire Wind will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period. In addition, the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.”
