a federal judge said Dominion Energy Inc. can restart construction of a wind project off the Virginia coast while continuing its legal battle over the Trump administration’s order to halt the $11 billion development.
The ruling marks the third time this week that offshore wind projects have been allowed to resume despite government shutdown orders. U.S. District Judge Jamal Walker in Norfolk, Virginia, issued a preliminary injunction on Friday barring the Interior Department from enforcing its order as Dominion claimed it was losing millions of dollars every day the project sat idle.
Dominion Energy’s Virginia unit is one of several companies suing the government over a Dec. 22 order to suspend five East Coast wind projects for 90 days, citing unspecified national security concerns. Earlier this week, a federal judge rule norwegian Orsted A/S can resume development of its projects outside Rhode Island, another judge issues similar ruling ruling for Statoil ASA’s Empire Wind project near New York.
On Friday, Virginia judges echoed concerns expressed by other courts. Walker said the government failed to demonstrate “an imminent national security risk” and the Dominion project should be halted. He added that the department’s orders could be arbitrary and capricious, and further delays would cause irreparable damage to the company.
Dominion shares rose 0.6% after the ruling, hitting an intraday high of $61.50.
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The White House reiterated its response to the earlier court defeat, pledging to continue its fight against offshore wind. “The Trump Administration has paused construction of all large offshore wind projects because our top priority is ‘America First’ and protecting the national security of the American people,” White House spokesman Taylor Rogers said. “The Administration looks forward to a final victory on this issue.”
Dominion said it “will now focus on safely restarting” work on the project’s 176 wind turbines, some of which will begin delivering power within weeks. “While our legal challenge continues, we will continue to seek a lasting resolution to this matter by working with the federal government,” the company said in an emailed statement.
President Donald Trump has rescinded Biden-era climate policies and embraced fossil fuels in an effort to halt the industry’s growth. The shutdown order also comes after Trump froze all federal wind project permits on land and ocean on his first day in office, despite a federal judge ruling his order was illegal.
The U.S. offshore wind industry has faced other difficulties in recent years, including soaring inflation and supply chain disruptions. Even as some of these issues are alleviated, developers are still being hit by rising costs from Trump’s tariffs. Collectively, this has resulted in project cancellations, delays and write-downs.
Losses keep mounting
Dominion said in court documents that it was losing about $5 million a day on its ship contracts alone because of the construction shutdown, with higher costs from idled workers and contract penalties. The company said more than two-thirds of the estimated total cost of $11.2 billion has been spent on the Virginia project, which is expected to be completed this year and provide power to 660,000 homes.
Alternative investment firm Stonepeak Partners acquired 50% equity Wind power projects in 2024 agree Financing 50% of project costs, up to $11.3 billion, and additional sharing of costs above that amount. According to analysts Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Dominion and Stonepeak share about $225 million in monthly expenses related to the shutdown orders.
Dominion said in a statement last month that the project is “critical to U.S. national security and meeting Virginia’s dramatically growing energy needs.” That includes powering “the largest concentration of data centers in the world” as well as many federal government and military facilities, including the Pentagon, attorneys for the company wrote in court records.
The U.S. government argued that the move to halt construction was valid because it was for national security reasons. Government lawyers said in court filings in December that the stop-work order adequately explained that the Defense Department had provided new classified information about advances in “adversary technology” that “could raise national security concerns for offshore wind projects.”
However, those arguments were rejected by three different judges, all of whom were able to review specific details of the national security claims that had not been publicly disclosed. They include one judge appointed by Trump and another appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. Walker was appointed by Joe Biden.
Attorneys for Dominion argued in court filings that the agency’s reasons for the suspension were not “reasonable” because national security concerns were taken into account during the permitting process. They also claim the government violated the Dominion’s constitutional due process rights by failing to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before issuing the order.
The case is Virginia Electric Power Co. v. U.S. Department of the Interior, 2:25-CV-00830U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Norfolk).