America’s first major offshore wind project has survived another crisis.
A federal judge on Tuesday stayed the Trump administration’s stop-work order for Vineyard Wind, putting the 62-turbine project on the cusp of completion almost a decade after it signed a contract to sell power to Massachusetts.
Tuesday’s ruling follows a nearly five-year permitting review, court challenges appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, a dockworkers strike and a blade accident.
But if Vineyard Wind’s legal victory put offshore wind on the precipice of a monumental breakthrough, it also underscored the industry’s downsized ambitions. Where New England leaders once dreamed of powering much of their economy with electricity generated at sea, a decade of effort has yielded just two projects that are only now reaching completion. President Donald Trump’s steadfast opposition to wind — along with inflation and supply chain constraints — makes it is unclear if any others will follow.
