Danish renewable energy company Orsted will restart work “as soon as possible” on a wind farm off the coast of New England, after a federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a stop work order.
“Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” Orsted said in a statement Monday.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ordered Orsted on Aug. 22 to halt construction on Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The project is fully permited and 80% complete. It would provide power for more than 350,000 homes.
Orsted and its partner Skyborn Renewables filed a lawsuit against Interior that asked the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to lift the stop-work order. They argued that Interior’s order to stop construction was aribtrary, capricious, unlawful and “issued in bad faith.”
Judge Royce Lamberth granted Orsted’s request for a temporary injunction Monday. Orsted had “demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits” and would likely suffer irreparable harm if the stop-work order remained in place while the litigation plays out, Lamberth said in his ruling.
The Trump administration could appeal. CNBC has reached out to the White House for comment.
The judge’s decision is a setback for President Donald Trump’s effort to shut down the nascent offshore wind industry in the U.S.
Trump has targeted the wind power industry since his first day in office, when he banned new leases for offshore wind farms. But the industry had hoped that fully permitted wind projects, particularly those that are already under construction, would be allowed to proceed.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier this month that he is “taking a deep look” at five offshore wind projects in the U.S. that are under construction. Burgum made clear that Trump wants to shut down the offshore wind industry.
“Under this administration, there is not a future for offshore wind because it is too expensive and not reliable enough,” Burgum told an audience at the Gastech conference in Milan, Italy, on Sept. 11.
