Judge Blocks Trump Bid to Halt Offshore Wind Work

A federal judge’s ruling has blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to stop construction of offshore wind farms, including one off the coast of Montauk and another off Long Beach.

The ruling handed down on Dec. 8 was the culmination of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 17 states after Trump issued an executive order suspending federal approval for such projects.

“As New Yorkers face rising energy costs, we need more energy sources, not fewer,” said New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who led the coalition. “Wind energy is good for our environment, our economy, and our communities. I am grateful the court stepped in to block the administration’s reckless and unlawful crusade against clean energy.”

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the coalition’s motion for summary judgment that declared he directive illegal and vacated the order.

The coalition filed suit in May after the administration issued a stop work order halting the 54-turbine Empire Wind 1 project just as offshore construction got underway off Long Beach. The move raised concerns that the 84-turbine Sunrise Wind would be next.

Danish offshore wind farm developer Ørsted began construction last year on Sunrise Wind, which will be seven times bigger than its neighbor, South Fork Wind — the first utility-scale project of its kind in the nation — about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. The 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project, which is expected to power approximately 600,000 homes upon its target completion date in 2026.

A White House spokesperson told Rueters that the order “unleashed America’s energy dominance to protect our economic and national security.”

In siding with the plaintiffs, who argued that the administration provided no reason for the move that bucked decades of policy, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston wrote that the defendants “candidly concede that the sole factor they considered in deciding to stop issuing permits was the President’s direction to do so.”