Judge Says Work on Wind Project Can Resume

A federal judge ruled Monday that work on a major offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume, handing the industry at least a temporary victory as President Trump seeks to shut the project down. At the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Senior Judge Royce Lamberth said the government did not explain why it could not take action short of a complete stop to construction on Revolution Wind while it considers ways to mitigate its national security concerns, the AP reports. He said it also did not provide sufficient reasoning for its change in position.

Revolution Wind has received all of its federal permits and is nearly 90% complete to provide power for Rhode Island and Connecticut. Trump says his goal is to not let any "windmills" be built. Three energy developers are challenging the administration's freeze of their offshore wind projects in federal courts this week.

• Danish energy company Orsted, Norwegian company Equinor, and Dominion Energy Virginia each sued to ask the courts to vacate and set aside the administration's Dec. 22 order to freeze five big projects on the East Coast over national security concerns. Orsted's hearing was first on its Revolution Wind project. Orsted said it will soon resume construction to deliver affordable, reliable power to the Northeast.

• The administration did not reveal specifics about its national security concerns, but Trump said Friday while meeting with oil industry executives about investing in Venezuela that wind farms are "losers." He said they lose money, destroy the landscape, and kill birds. "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."
• At Monday's hearing, attorney Janice Schneider, representing Revolution Wind, said the stop work order came at a critical stage of construction, with the project nearly 90% built and weeks away from beginning to deliver power to the electric grid. She said that the delay is costing more than $1.4 million per day, and that a specialized vessel has just enough time now to install the remaining turbines before its contract is up at the site in February.

• Schneider said they take national security issues seriously, but the government has not shared more information about its concerns with their experts who have security clearances, or shared unclassified summaries. "We do think that this court should be very skeptical of the government's true motives here," Schneider said, citing Trump's comments from Friday and his previous criticism of the wind industry. "Birds, whales, cost, 'it's a rip-off,' 'it's a scam,' 'oil is better,' this list goes on and on," she said, per the Wall Street Journal.
• Work on the Revolution Wind project was previously paused on Aug. 22 for what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said were national security concerns. A month later, Judge Lamberth ruled the project could resume, citing the irreparable harm to the developers and the demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.