Why five judges rejected Trump’s arguments against offshore wind farms
All of the offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration in December can proceed after judges issued five separate rulings allowing construction to resume. The latest approval, which came on Monday, was for a Sunrise Wind farm off Long Island intended to produce enough power for 600,000 New York homes.
A judge found that the federal government did not show that offshore wind was enough of an imminent national security risk.
“Today’s ruling marks the fifth time in a row that a federal court has allowed one of the five offshore wind projects suspended in December to move forward,” Hillary Bright, executive director of Turn Forward, a nonprofit that advocates for wind power, said in a statement to Straight Arrow News. “With this decision, courts have now consistently rejected the government’s abrupt attempt to halt construction on these fully permitted projects.”
Trump administration halts construction
In December, the Department of the Interior announced a pause to all offshore wind leases and ordered construction to stop, citing national security concerns that offshore wind interferes with critical radar.
As Straight Arrow News previously reported, the government said offshore wind turbines create radar interference, or “clutter,” that obscures real targets and generates false alarms for military radar systems.
However, judges have determined that the department failed to provide sufficient evidence of the threat, resulting in the halt being overturned for this project and four others.
Previous injunctions
Last month, a judge gave Empire Wind developer approval to start construction on its New York wind farm.
Before that, another judge ruled Revolution Wind off Rhode Island could continue construction, The New York Times reported. Both judges were appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term.
The two other projects given approval to resume were Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind for Virginia by Dominion Energy Virginia and Vineyard Wind for Massachusetts by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
The Sunrise Wind project is about 45% complete, and Empire Wind’s project is 60% finished. Both are expected to be operational in 2027.
How these farms affect Americans
With construction back on, Americans on the East Coast could see a surge of electrical power.
“Taken together, these five offshore wind projects represent nearly 6 gigawatts of new electricity now under construction along the East Coast, enough power to serve 2.5M American homes and businesses,” Bright said.
Johannes Pfeifenberger with the consulting firm Brattle Group said the partly completed plants “have already significantly helped New England get through the recent cold snaps.”
“Offshore wind strengthens American energy security, supports domestic manufacturing and construction jobs, and delivers reliable power where it is needed most,” Bright said. “We need to leverage this resource, not hold it back.”
What this means offshore development
While the recent injunctions help the wind farms already under construction, Pfeifenberger says the administration’s efforts could halt projects that haven’t begun.
“Not sure that projects permitted but not yet under construction will move forward since the risk of losing more than the investment already made are just too high,” Pfeifenberger told Straight Arrow News.
He noted that the future of offshore development could be at risk, as well, saying, “investors simply will not be willing to put their money at risk in the U.S. when there are plenty of opportunities in other countries with a more favorable investment climate.”
Pfeifenberger said that, in general, the projects will remain vulnerable given the administration’s stated preference against offshore wind.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
