- Three developers challenge Trump's offshore wind freeze in court.
- Lawsuit targets halt on their wind energy projects this week.
- Trump vows to block all new windmill construction nationwide.
The administration's Dec. 22 order to halt five major projects on the East Coast due to national security concerns was challenged in court by the Danish energy business Orsted, the Norwegian company Equinor, and Dominion Energy Virginia. The first hearing on Orsted's Revolution Wind project is set for Monday. With partner Skyborn Renewables, Orsted is constructing Revolution Wind to supply electricity to Connecticut and Rhode Island.
While discussing investments in Venezuela with executives from the oil industry on Friday, Trump declared that wind farms are "losers." The administration did not provide details about its national security concerns. He claimed that they kill birds, ruin the environment, and lose money.
“I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills,”
Trump said.
“Maybe we get forced to do something because some stupid person in the Biden administration agreed to do something years ago. We will not approve any windmills in this country.”
In an effort to combat climate change, the Biden administration aimed to increase offshore wind. On his first day in office, Trump started overturning the nation's energy policies by issuing a number of executive orders that increased the use of coal, oil, and gas.
Leases for the Vineyard Wind project in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and two projects in New York, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind, were put on hold by the Trump administration. On Friday, the attorney general of New York filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration about Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind.
Orsted has two significant offshore wind projects: Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. In an effort to preserve Revolution Wind, Rhode Island and Connecticut submitted their own court requests.
Empire Wind is owned by Equinor. Because the decision interferes with a carefully planned construction schedule that depends on vessels with extremely limited availability, Empire Wind LLC, the project's limited liability corporation, stated that the project faces "likely termination" if development cannot restart by this Friday. On Wednesday, it will be heard.
Equinor's senior vice president in charge of Empire Wind, Molly Morris, stated that the company wants to create this project, that construction is underway, and that it will provide New York with a significant new and vital source of electricity. Morris claimed that they had not received an explanation from federal officials about the national security issues.
“I would like to think that offshore wind is, and will continue to be, part of an all-of-the-above energy solution, which our country desperately needs,”
she said.
The first to file a lawsuit was Dominion Energy Virginia, which is building Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. Calling the order "arbitrary and capricious" and unlawful, it is requesting that a judge overturn it.