A federal judge handed the Trump administration another major loss in its effort to halt offshore wind construction on the East Coast.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with Sunrise Wind on Monday in its bid to lift the administration’s freeze on construction of the project. The decision marks the fifth loss for the Trump administration over stop-work orders it launched last year for five offshore wind projects already being constructed off U.S. coastlines.
“Pointing to ongoing national security concerns based on purportedly new classified information does not constitute a sufficient explanation for the bureau’s decision to entirely stop work on the Sunrise Wind project,” Lamberth said.
Sunrise Wind, a 924-megawatt offshore wind project off the coast of New York, argued the government’s order is “wholly conclusory, internally inconsistent, and overbroad.” If allowed to remain in force, the cost would grow to more than $2.5 million per day, with losses of more than $8 billion should the project be canceled, an attorney for the project said. Sunrise Wind said it already spent $7 billion to develop the project, which is now roughly 45 percent complete.
Project developer Ørsted has said it will generate enough clean energy to power nearly 600,000 homes.
Ørsted said in a response Monday the project will resume construction work as soon as possible. It added Sunrise Wind will determine how it may be possible to work with the Trump administration to achieve “an expeditious and durable resolution.”
The administration ordered five large-scale offshore wind projects already under construction to suspend work in December, citing national security concerns. It marked a new escalation of President Donald Trump’s long-running effort to target the nascent renewable energy industry in the United States. Sunrise Wind was the last of the five projects to appear before the courts in challenges to the orders.
Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, previously weighed in favor of offshore wind companies. He separately lifted a pause on the Revolution Wind project in New England last month, having found the project would be “irreparably harmed” by the government’s ongoing suspension of construction.
Attorneys for Sunrise Wind pointed to that ruling Monday calling it a “virtually identical” stop-work order that was based on the same classified information. Attorney Janice Schneider said the project had yet to see the classified information at issue in the administration’s order nor had “substantive” engagement from the government.
Lamberth said his determination Monday relied on the same reasoning as his previous ruling, as well as similar ones made in other courts in recent weeks. He found the Sunrise Wind project was likely to win on the merits in the underlying case and was persuaded that it would be irreparably harmed absent a stay of the stop-work order.
Sunrise Wind had pointed to a specialized vessel required to install cable for the project that it has access to for only a limited period. It said delays could also cause a “domino effect” on other aspects of the project. The state of New York emphasized in its remarks before the court that the project is poised to help meet growing demand and diversify the state’s energy system.
Schneider also pointed to Trump’s recent remarks in Davos attacking offshore wind, which she said underscored concern that the stop-work order is “pretextual.”
An attorney representing the federal government called on the court to defer to military interests and national security. John Kenneth Adams also sought to differentiate between the Sunrise Wind project and the Revolution Wind project that Lamberth previously ruled on. He said Sunrise Wind had not “satisfied its heavy burden” to show economic or existential harms.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers reiterated in a response Monday that Trump has been clear that “wind energy is the scam of the century.”
“The Trump administration has 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,” Rogers said. “The Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”
The Interior Department said it had no comment at this time due to pending litigation.
