The Trump administration faced significant legal setbacks this week as judges allowed work to restart on several offshore wind farms under construction along the East Coast. The Department of the Interior had ordered a halt to five projects totaling 6 gigawatts of generating capacity in December, citing national security concerns. The judicial orders will permit three projects to resume construction: Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, Empire Wind off New York, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia.
Each developer filed lawsuits shortly after the Trump administration issued the stop work order, which had been effective for 90 days. When announcing the halt just days before Christmas, the government cited concerns that the wind farms would interfere with radar operations. This is a valid concern, one that the government and project developers have grappled with throughout the siting and permitting process. Wind farms can be located to minimize disruption to existing radar facilities, and radar equipment itself can be upgraded to filter out noise generated by whirling turbine blades.
President Trump has made it clear he is not a supporter of offshore wind, having told oil executives last week, “I’m not much of a windmill person.”
In early hearings, judges were not impressed with the government’s reasoning. In three separate courtrooms in Virginia and Washington, DC, the Trump administration’s arguments were met with skepticism. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, pointed out that the government failed to address several of plaintiff Equinor’s arguments in its lawsuit. Equinor, which is developing Empire Wind, had alleged the Interior department’s order was “arbitrary and capricious.” Judge Nichols noted, “Your brief doesn’t even include the word arbitrary.”
Judge Nichols also questioned why the Trump administration was asking for construction to be halted when its main national security concern appeared to be over the operation of the completed wind farm, not its building phase. U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker, who heard Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind developer Dominion Energy’s lawsuit, questioned the government along a similar line. He also said the Interior department’s order was overly broad when viewed in the context of the Virginia project.
Two projects remain in limbo as their lawsuits work through the courts. Ørsted, which is developing Sunrise Wind, has a hearing scheduled for February 2, while Vineyard Wind 1’s developers only filed their lawsuit on Thursday.
The East Coast could deliver up to 110 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2050, according to a Department of Energy study published in 2024. That would provide a significant boost to some of the most densely populated cities and data center regions in the country. The Northeast currently has some of the highest electricity costs in the nation, while the Mid-Atlantic’s grid operator has recently come under fire for rising electricity prices in its territory. Offshore wind, as one of the cheapest forms of new generating capacity, has the potential to slow or reverse this trend.
The potential is even bigger on a national scale. Offshore wind could generate 13,500 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, which is three times more than the United States currently consumes.