September 23, 2025 — A judge on Monday temporarily lifted the Trump administration’s order to halt construction of Revolution Wind, a massive offshore wind energy project that would power hundreds of thousands of homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
US district judge lifts stop-work order on Ørsted offshore wind project
Sptember 23, 2025 — A U.S. judge has lifted a stop-work order on Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project, a large offshore wind installation off the nation’s East Coast.
The Revolution Wind project, which is being built off the coast of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, was halted in August after the Bureau of Energy Ocean Management (BOEM) issued a stop-work order, just weeks after it also canceled all offshore Wind Energy Area designations. BOEM issued a director’s order to halt “all ongoing activities” related to the project, which Ørsted said was 80 percent to completion.
Judge rules against Trump administration, allows Revolution Wind to resume
September 23, 2025 — A federal judge on Monday ordered that Orsted’s Revolution Wind may resume construction, affirming the company’s arguments that the Trump administration’s halting of the project is unlawful.
The ruling is a major win for the offshore wind industry, which to date has not seen much relief from the courts in addressing the obstacles that the Trump administration has put in place through executive and secretarial orders.
The preliminary injunction, as the name suggests, is a preliminary decision that halts the stop-work order while the case plays out. Still, such an injunction must meet four conditions, including that the plaintiff (Orsted) is likely to succeed on the merits of their argument and suffer irreparable harm without relief, and that an injunction would be in the public interest.
Judge Says Work on Wind Farm Off Rhode Island Can Proceed, for Now
September 22, 2025 — A federal judge ruled on Monday that the Danish energy company Orsted could restart work on Revolution Wind, a large wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is nearly complete but had been abruptly halted last month by the Trump administration.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit that the developers of Revolution Wind had filed challenging the Interior Department’s stop-work order. The injunction means that construction can continue while the case moves forward.
“Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” Orsted, which is developing the wind farm in a joint venture with Skyborn Renewables, said in a statement. Orsted added that it would “continue to seek to work collaboratively with the U.S. administration and other stakeholders toward a prompt resolution” of the lawsuit.
The $6.2 billion Revolution Wind project was 80 percent completed when the Interior Department ordered construction to stop on Aug. 29. The developers behind the 65-turbine project had said it was on track to generate enough electricity for more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring.
BOEM Tells Court it Wants to Resume Review of Permits for SouthCoast Wind
September 22, 2025 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management formally filed with a federal court on Thursday, September 18, calling for the court to set aside the actions of the Biden administration so that it can restart the environmental review on a Massachusetts offshore wind farm project as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing review of the industry.
The Department of Justice made the filing to the federal court as part of a legal action brought in March 2025 by Nantucket, which was challenging the approval of the Construction and Operation Plan for the proposed 2.4 GW SoutCoast Wind. The Department of the Interior and its BOEM are parties to the suit. They have asked that the case be postponed and the permits, which were granted on January 17, just days before the end of the Biden presidency, undergo further review.
The project, which was approved for up to 141 wind turbines and up to five offshore substation platforms, would be located 20 miles south of Nantucket and approximately 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. It is being developed by Ocean Winds, which is a joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie. They won the lease for the project originally known as Mayflower Wind at the end of 2018, and the company points out that it spent four years in the review and approval process before the Department of the Interior issued its Record of Decision on December 20.
Feds to judiciary: US Wind permit should be vacated
September 19, 2025 — A top-level Interior Department official is backing up the federal government’s about-face on offshore wind energy by saying its prior approval of a Maryland offshore wind project downplayed potential impacts on ocean rescues, commercial fishing, and environmental concerns – and that the approval process may need to be scrapped and redone.
Adam Suess, an acting Interior Department assistant secretary who oversees the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), said that even after BOEM had approved construction and operations plans for the offshore wind farm by developer US Wind, his agency has a duty to keep checking whether the project really meets the law.
Agency officials under President Joe Biden’s administration “failed to account for all the impacts that the Maryland Offshore Wind Project may cause,” Suess wrote in a Sept. 12 filing, one attached to the same federal lawsuit that the Town of Ocean City is fighting against the Interior Department over offshore wind.
“As part of its ongoing review of the project, the department has initially determined that these impacts may not be sufficiently mitigated and, therefore, the project, as approved, is not preventing interference with other reasonable uses” of the outer continental shelf, the filing states.
While Biden’s Interior Department cleared the project last year, attorneys for the Trump administration now argue that those approvals were flawed. They said BOEM’s approval “was not properly informed by a complete understanding of the impacts from the project,” and that some impacts were “understated or obfuscated.”
Conservation groups plan lawsuit over hatcheries
September 18, 2025 — Two Seattle area conservation groups say they intend to sue the federal government for failure to protect salmon, steelhead and orcas from hatchery programs.
The announcement from Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) and The Conservation Angler (TCA) contends that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is funding and authorizing hatcheries in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam under the Mitchell Act, relying on a flawed 2024 Biological Opinion that contains scientifically indefensible conclusions and violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The Mitchell Act, passed by Congress in 1938, is intended to advance the conservation of salmon and steelhead fisheries in the Columbia River Basin. Mitchell Act funding has supported the establishment, operation and maintenance of hatchery facilities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as monitoring and evaluation of hatchery programs, screening irrigation intakes, and improving fish passage. NOAA Fisheries has administered the Mitchell Act since 1970, distributing funds to tribes and Oregon, Washington and Idaho to produce hatchery salmon and steelhead to support fisheries.
Alaska asks US Supreme Court to weigh in on subsistence fishing dispute with federal officials
September 18, 2025 — After losing its case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the state of Alaska is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on its subsistence fishing system, which gives preferential treatment to rural Alaskans.
“Alaska’s fisheries are among the most bountiful in the world, sustaining tens of thousands of livelihoods through commercial, sport, and subsistence fishing. Yet, the Ninth Circuit’s decision deepens a fractured system that undermines conservation, creates confusion, and threatens equitable access for all Alaskans. Salmon don’t recognize federal and state boundaries; our management shouldn’t either. We remain committed to sustainable management and will continue fighting for a system that works for every Alaskan. The Court should decide this case and reverse the Ninth Circuit,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in a release.
The Feds Had Questions. Court Filings Claim Revolution Wind Developers Didn’t Answer Them
September 17, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s opposition to offshore wind crystallized long before he won re-election. But the justification for the administration’s abrupt halt to the Revolution Wind project on Aug. 22 has remained murky.
Until now.
New court filings from the U.S. Department of Justice reveal the rationale behind the U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) decision to shut down the 65-turbine project that was already 80% finished: Developers allegedly failed to turn in required plans on how the project off Rhode Island’s coastline would affect national ocean research and defense work.
“As of the date of this Declaration, still DOI not received any information that these requirements have been satisfied and given how long they remain pending, the department has concerns as to whether they will ever be met,” Adam Suess, acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management for the Interior Department, wrote in a Sept. 12 affidavit.
Suess’ written testimony counters the criticism from state officials and project developers accusing the Trump administration of arbitrary and unlawful abuses of power in a pair of federal lawsuits filed Sept. 4.
Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables, co-developers of the $5 billion wind project, filed their lawsuit against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other federal agencies and directors in D.C., while attorneys general in Rhode Island and Connecticut took their legal challenge to Rhode Island federal court. The two southern New England states were under contracts to buy electricity from the 704-megawatt project starting next year. Now in limbo, thousands of labor jobs are on the line, along with both states’ abilities to meet their climate change mandates and the reliability of the regional electric grid.
US asks federal court to cancel permit for Maryland offshore wind farm
September 15, 2025 — The Trump administration asked a federal judge to cancel the 2024 approval of a wind farm off the coast of Maryland, saying former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration had underestimated threats it would cause to search and rescue operations and commercial fisheries, according to court documents filed on Friday.
If approved by the court, the motion would invalidate a years-long federal process that permitted US Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project. The facility was expected to generate enough electricity to power 718,000 homes at a time of soaring U.S. demand.
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