ORSTED WINS RULING TO RESUME US WIND PROJECT HALTED BY TRUMP

(Bloomberg) -- A US judge ruled Orsted A/S can resume building a wind farm project off the coast of Rhode Island while it challenges the government’s latest stop-work order, a major win for the Danish energy giant in an ongoing fight with the Trump administration over renewable energy.

The Revolution Wind project, intended to power hundreds of thousands of homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut, “would be irreparably harmed” unless work was allowed to continue during the legal fight, US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Washington concluded Monday. The project is almost 90% complete.

On Dec. 22, the US Interior Department had ordered a 90-day suspension of five East Coast wind farm projects — including Orsted’s — citing undisclosed national security concerns. The order, which triggered several legal fights, marked President Donald Trump’s latest effort to hobble the industry as he champions fossil fuels.

Lamberth’s ruling offers hope to developers facing a flurry of US moves to stop offshore wind projects Trump claims “lose money” and “destroy your landscape.” The same judge is considering Orsted’s request to continue work on its Sunrise Wind project near New York. And it could signal judges will rule favorably in suits over other suspended wind projects, ClearView Energy Partners said in a research note. 

In a statement, Orsted said “the project will resume construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority, and to deliver affordable, reliable power to the Northeast.”

After a two-hour hearing, Lamberth said the government’s claimed national-security concerns may have been a pretext to block the renewable energy project, and never fully explained why those issues couldn’t be remedied by Orsted. The administration also waited almost a month to issue the stop-work order after purportedly discovering new security risks, undercutting its claim that the situation is an emergency, the judge said.

“I’m not persuaded any emergency exists in this case,” said Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. He added that the stop-work order may have been “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires government agencies to issue detailed reasons for major rule changes and to allow time for public comment. 

A White House spokeswoman said the federal government will keep fighting offshore wind projects. “The Trump administration paused the construction of all large-scale offshore wind projects because our number one priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people,” said Taylor Rogers, a spokeswoman for the White House.  “We look forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”  

Other Projects

In addition to the Rhode Island development, Orsted filed a separate lawsuit seeking to resume work on its offshore wind project near New York. Challenges also have been filed by Equinor ASA’s Empire Wind and Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project. Lamberth is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday on Equinor’s request for an order blocking the government’s stop-work order.

Dominion shares rose as much as 0.7% in after-market trading. 

The administration initially halted work on the $5 billion Revolution Wind project in August, triggering a crisis for its owners and the industry as the installation was nearing completion. In September, a federal judge allowed construction to continue, but a second stop-work order was issued last month, when the Interior Department said the massive turbines may interfere with radar systems.

In their request for a new preliminary injunction, project owners said the government’s December order was causing losses of about $1.44 million a day. They said they lost about $105 million from the first construction pause.

The suspensions are part of Trump’s effort to aggressively thwart the growth of the industry as he rolls back Biden-era climate policies. Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order pausing approvals for wind projects on federal lands and water, though it was recently ruled unlawful by a federal judge.

Revolution Wind LLC, co-owned by Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners, claims in its lawsuit that the administration violated its constitutional right to due process by abruptly blocking construction — twice. The company also claimed the stop-work order violated federal law because it was “arbitrary and capricious,” following years of planning and coordination with the US government.

Revolution Wind is a 700-megawatt project expected to power about 350,000 homes. The governors of New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island issued a joint statement saying that pausing construction “defies logic, will hurt our bid for energy independence, will drive up costs for America ratepayers, and will make us lose thousands of good-paying jobs.”

The state attorneys general of Rhode Island and Connecticut have also sued over the Revolution Wind stop-work order. 

In a statement Monday, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha welcomed the ruling. “Rhode Island and Connecticut rely on this project for energy pricing stability and affordability, electric grid reliability, environmental health, good-paying union jobs, and more,” Neronha said. “The law takes precedent over the political whims of one man, and we will continue to fight to make sure that remains the case.”

The case is Revolution Wind v. Burgum, 25-cv-2999, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Priscila Azevedo Rocha and Greg Ryan.

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2026-01-12T21:56:22Z