The Interior Department is planning to revoke a permit for a Maryland offshore wind project, as President Donald Trump expands his attacks on renewable energy.
In a pair of court filings Friday, the administration asked federal judges in Delaware and Maryland to stay lawsuits challenging the Maryland Offshore Wind Project because the Interior Department is planning to rescind its permit. The three-phased development proposed by US Wind was issued a permit by the Biden administration last year and was scheduled to start construction by 2026.
The Interior Department intends to remand the project’s plans for construction and operations by Sept. 12, rendering legal challenges to the project moot, the Justice Department wrote in the court filings.
It marks the latest attempt by Trump to halt offshore wind projects underway along the East Coast. Interior stopped issuing new offshore wind leases soon after Trump took office in January. EPA quickly followed by revoking an air quality permit for a project in New Jersey that was struggling to move forward due to rising construction costs. Interior halted work for a month on Empire Wind, a 54-turbine project near New York, shortly after offshore construction began in April. Then, last week, the department issued a stop-work order to Revolution Wind, a project off Rhode Island and Connecticut that is 80 percent complete.
