A federal judge overturned an Interior Department order halting construction of a $6.2 billion offshore wind project serving New England on Monday, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump’s attempts to shut down coastal wind projects.
The injunction issued by Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allows construction to resume at Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine project capable of powering 350,000 homes. It marks the second time Lamberth has overturned an Interior order seeking to halt construction of the project off Connecticut and Rhode Island. In September, he rejected Interior’s claim that the project constituted a threat to national security, calling it the height of “arbitrary and capricious action.”
That claim centered on electromagnetic emissions from the project’s transmission cable. Interior issued a second stop-work order to Revolution Wind last month, citing a new classified report by the Department of Defense that asserted the massive turbines could disrupt military radar. Stop-work orders were also issued to four other offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast.
Trump, a longtime critic of offshore wind, bragged about stopping construction of wind farms during a meeting with oil executives Friday. Those types of statements appeared to hurt the government’s case in court.
Lamberth said his concerns were “heightened” after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum criticized offshore wind projects in December “for a variety of reasons unrelated to national security.”
In his ruling from the bench Monday, Lamberth said the government had failed to explain why the new information warranted a halt to construction, calling it an”unreasonable and seemingly unjustified” change in position.
“The balance of equity is clearly cut in favor of Revolution Wind continuing work while the government considers ways to mitigate any new national security concerns that the project may implicate,” he said.
Revolution Wind, a 704-megawatt project, has contracts to sell electricity to utilities in Connecticut and Rhode Island. It is slated to begin commercial operations next year.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a division of Interior, took a month to issue its stop-work order after receiving DOD’s report, suggesting that the turbines did not constitute the threat claimed by the government, Lamberth noted.
“When I stayed the bureau’s first stop-work order back in September 2025, I said the bureau’s failure to provide any reasoning for its decision was the height of arbitrary and capricious action,” Lamberth said Monday. “This time the government did provide a reason for its decision, but its failure to explain or apply that reasoning suggests the stated national security reason may have been pre-textual.”
