The Trump administration suffered a series of legal setbacks this week after a judge allowed work to resume on several offshore wind farms under construction on the East Coast.
The Department of Home Affairs has ordered to stop five projects a total of 6 gigawatts of generating capacity in December, citing national security concerns. The court order will allow three projects to continue construction: Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, Empire Wind off New York, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off — you guessed it — Virginia.
The developers each filed the lawsuit shortly after the Trump administration issued a stop-work order, which has been effective for 90 days.
In announcing the shutdown days before Christmas, the government expressed concern that wind farms would interfere with radar operations. This is a valid concern, and one that governments and project developers are dealing with during the siting and permitting process. Wind farms can be located to minimize noise to existing radar facilities, and the radar equipment itself can be upgraded to filter out noise generated by whirling turbine blades.
President Trump himself has made it no secret that he’s not a fan of offshore wind: “I’m not a windmill guy,” he told oil executives. last week.
At a preliminary hearing, the judge was unimpressed with the government’s line of reasoning. In three separate courtrooms in Virginia and Washington, DC, the Trump administration’s objections were met with skepticism.
US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, said the government failed to address some of Equinor’s arguments in the lawsuit. Equinor, which developed Empire Wind, said the Interior department order was “arbitrary and capricious.” “Your summary doesn’t even include arbitrary words,” Nichols said, according to to the Associated Press.
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Nichols also questioned why the Trump administration has called for construction to be halted when major concerns about national security are looming over wind farm operations.
U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker, who is hearing a lawsuit by Virginia Beach offshore wind developer Dominion Energy, questioned the government’s similar stance. He also said that the orders of the Home department very wide when viewed in the context of the Virginia project.
Both projects remain in limbo due to lawsuits pending in court. Ørsted, which is developing Sunrise Wind, has a hearing scheduled for February 2, while the developer of Vineyard Wind 1 only filed its lawsuit on Thursday.
The East Coast could deliver up to 110 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2050, according to a Department of Energy Studies published in 2024. That will provide a significant boost to some of the most densely populated cities – and data center areas – in the country. The Northeast currently has some of the highest electricity costs in the country, while Mid-Atlantic grid operators have recently came to the fire due to the increase in electricity prices in their area. Offshore wind, is one of them the cheapest form new generating capacity, has the potential to slow or reverse the trend.
The potential is greater when viewed on a national scale. Offshore wind can produce 13,500 terawatt-hours electricity annually, which is three times more than the US now use it.