A federal judge issued an injunction overturning the Interior Department’s decision to halt work on Revolution Wind on Monday, throwing a lifeline to an embattled project that has become the poster child for President Donald Trump’s attacks on the wind industry.
The ruling is a victory for Revolution Wind and the offshore wind industry, which has been reeling from the Trump administration’s efforts to stop projects along the East Coast. Revolution Wind was 80 percent complete when Interior halted the project in August, citing national security concerns. Project officials said they faced a Monday deadline for deciding whether to move forward, because of scheduling issues related to the specialized vessels needed to build the $6.2 billion development.
Ruling from the bench, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia called Interior’s stop-work order “the height of arbitrary and capricious.” The issues Interior cited for stopping the project had been reviewed for years as part of the project’s permit application, he said. The government failed to provide any factual findings for why it believed Revolution Wind was no longer in compliance with its permit, Lamberth said.
“There is no question in my mind, of irrevocable harm to the plaintiff,” said Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. “The balance of the equities is cut in favor of Revolution Wind continuing work while the government conducts whatever review of potential national security resource concerns they have.”
