The developer of Empire Wind is warning that the offshore wind project faces “likely termination” if the Trump administration continues to block construction.
The project — which sits off the coast of New York — is 60 percent complete. But last month, the Interior Department suspended work on Empire Wind 1, along with four other offshore wind developments.
Empire Wind, which is owned by Norwegian energy giant Equinor, filed a lawsuit on Friday over the stop-work order. On Wednesday, it filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to allow it to continue construction as the lawsuit is ongoing.
“If allowed to stand, it is very likely that the Suspension Order will strike a fatal blow to an ongoing offshore wind project that is fully and duly permitted under the law and has been in active construction for over a year at a cost of billions of dollars,” Empire Wind wrote in the motion.
