Saving Seafood

Vineyard Wind 1 blows past federal stop-work order, project to resume

January 29, 2026 — Vineyard Wind 1 picked up a legal tailwind on Jan. 27 after a federal judge stayed a Trump administration stop-work order that halted the nearly finished project just more than a month ago.

Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the company a preliminary injunction, blocking a Dec. 22 suspension order the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued to five major East Coast offshore wind projects.

The ruling allows Vineyard Wind 1, a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, to restart full construction activities in its lease area south of Martha’s Vineyard and southwest of Nantucket while the broader legal challenge moves through the court system. The project brings power ashore at Covell Beach in Barnstable, connecting to the New England power grid by way of a substation in Hyannis.

Read the full article at Cape Cod Times

ALASKA: U.S. Interior Department agency solicits interest in seafloor mining off Alaska

January 28, 2026 — The Trump administration is floating the idea of mining the seafloor off Alaska’s coast.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Tuesday it will soon release a formal “call for information” about possible sales of leases for minerals mining in federal waters off Alaska. The call for information will kick off a 30-day public comment period allowing industry to express interest in such a lease sale.

“Alaska’s offshore holds strategic potential for the minerals that drive American industry, defense and next-generation technologies,” Matt Giacona, BOEM’s acting director, said in a statement. “This Request for Information is a practical first step to gauge interest and identify areas where development could make sense for jobs, investment and national supply chains.”

The push for offshore minerals mining “supports the Trump Administration’s focus on strengthening domestic supply chains and advancing American energy and resource leadership,” the BOEM statement said.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

Vineyard Wind to argue in federal court for getting back to work ASAP

January 27, 2026 — The developer behind a large offshore wind farm near Massachusetts will try to convince a federal judge on Tuesday to allow construction on the project to resume.

Attorneys for the company, Vineyard Wind, will ask the judge to hit pause on a federal order that stopped work on the nearly complete project. The Trump administration suspended work on Vineyard Wind and four other offshore wind projects last month, citing unspecified national security concerns.

In a subsequent lawsuit, Vineyard Wind accused the government of acting unlawfully and of abusing its statutory power  — a move the company said is costing it $2 million for each day that construction is shut down.

Tuesday’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston comes amid mounting public outrage over the region’s high energy costs, and concerns about how New England will handle the projected growth in electricity demand over the next decade. The hearing also comes after judges allowed construction to resume — at least temporarily — on three other East Coast offshore wind projects that were similarly shut down by last month’s federal order.

Given the outcome of those cases, Timothy Fox, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, an independent research firm that tracks offshore wind projects, said Vineyard Wind stands a good shot at getting its temporary restraining order, too.

Read the full article at wbur

BOEM Releases Call Areas for California Offshore Drilling Plan

January 27, 2025 — On Monday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management began the process for an offshore oil and gas lease sale off California with the publication of two call areas, which cover the southern and central areas of the state. The announcement suggests that the first lease sales will occur next year – giving time for local opposition, which has already begun to gather momentum.

CALIFORNIA: California lawmakers push back against offshore oil drilling

January 22, 2026 — Weeks after California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis spoke out against federal efforts to expand offshore oil drilling, state lawmakers told The Center Square that increased drilling is deeply unpopular among coastal residents.

Opponents warn against the environmental costs.

But supporters say technology has made drilling safer. They also note offshore drilling could boost America’s energy independence and lower gas prices in California, which typically has the highest in the U.S.

Legislators’ comments opposing the drilling come after the announcement in November 2025 that the U.S. Department of the Interior would expand oil and gas drilling leases not just off the Pacific Coast in areas such as Santa Barbara, but other sites on the nation’s outer continental shelf.

“We have a deep, visceral experience that is seared into the community’s consciousness about the risks of offshore oil development,” Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, told The Center Square. “We are adamantly opposed to the leasing. There’s been a bipartisan consensus for 40 years that we want to wind down offshore oil development, not expand it.”

According to a November 2025 order from the U.S. secretary of the interior, the program to increase oil drilling off American coastlines is meant to increase “national energy resilience” by increasing the number of oil drilling leases. That order mandated that four lease sales were planned for the coming months – one in December 2025, two in March 2026 and one in August 2026.

The first sale was held in December in New Orleans, attracting 219 bids from 26 companies that would include the increased oil production of 1.02 million acres in the Gulf of America, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. The last time oil drilling leases were sold in the Gulf of America, formerly the Gulf of Mexico, was in 2023.

Additional lease sales are planned for the Gulf of America and Cook Inlet in Alaska, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Despite no lease sales immediately planned off the coast of California, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to start auctioning six total oil drilling leases off the coast of California starting in 2027, according to a proposed program report from the bureau released in November. Three lease sales are planned in 2027 off the coast of Southern California, another two starting in 2027 off the coast of Central California and one off the coast of Northern California in 2029, the report states.

Trump’s offshore wind blockade suffers a third legal blow

January 20, 2026 — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Interior Department’s order halting construction of an offshore wind project off the coast of Virginia, marking the third time in a week that courts have stepped in to reverse the Trump administration’s anti-wind policies.

Judge Jamar Walker said in a hearing Friday before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that the agency failed to provide sufficient reasoning for freezing work on Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. The Biden-appointed judge issued a preliminary injunction from the bench clearing the way for construction to restart while litigation remains ongoing.

The Dec. 22 order from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management blocked construction on five offshore wind projects for 90 days along the Eastern Seaboard, citing emerging national security concerns. Along with Dominion Energy’s project, the order halted ongoing work on Empire Wind 1, Sunrise Wind, Revolution Wind and Vineyard Wind 1.

Read the full article at E&E News

Burgum ordered Revolution Wind’s August halt, documents show

January 16, 2026 — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum personally ordered the halt of an offshore wind project off of New England in August, but federal officials later downplayed his participation, according to emails obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.

Such direct involvement from a political appointee in an individual project is unusual, analysts and industry experts say. The sequence of events, shown in documents released to E&E News in a public records request, hint at the extent to which some of the most senior officials in the Trump administration are involved in the president’s anti-wind agenda.

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind in August. The $6.2 billion offshore wind project is expected to generate enough power for 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Read the full article at E&E News

CALIFORNIA: Central Coast communities oppose federal offshore drilling proposal

January 13, 2026 — Community leaders and environmental groups in California are pushing back against a federal proposal that could bring new offshore oil and gas drilling to the California coast, raising concerns about the impact on local economies and marine life and the risk of future spills.

The Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released a proposal for six potential offshore lease sales over the next five years, including federal waters off the Central Coast.

Ashley Blacow-Draeger said, “When we drill, we spill. We know that oil spills contaminate fisheries, they close beaches, they kill wildlife, and they impact people who are reliant on healthy oceans.”

Local leaders have highlighted the real risks associated with offshore drilling, referencing resolutions passed by cities across Monterey and Santa Cruz counties opposing such activities, and pointing to the long-term damages from the Santa Barbara oil spill.

Read the full article at KSBW

 

Trump cites national security risk to defend wind freeze in court

January 12, 2026 — The Interior Department is defending its decision to halt construction of the Revolution Wind project off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut over alleged national security concerns.

The agency is facing a flurry of legal challenges after Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ordered a 90-day pause on construction for the New England energy farm, along with four other offshore wind projects along the Eastern Seaboard. Those projects are Empire Wind 1, Sunrise Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and Vineyard Wind 1.

The agency decided the Dec. 22 order was necessary after the Department of Defense (renamed the Department of War by President Donald Trump) issued a classified report late last year about the security risks of offshore wind, Justice Department attorneys said in a Thursday brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the full article at E&E News

Feds plan to meet face-to-face on mining

January 12, 2026 — Federal officials from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of the Interior, are planning to visit Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in February to meet face-to-face with island residents and take public comments on deep-sea mining near the Mariana Trench.

Lester Carlson, director of the Bureau of Budget and Management Research, confirmed Monday that BOEM has requested meetings on Feb. 25 for Guam and Feb. 26-27 in the CNMI, though neither governor has finalized those dates.

“I think BOEM is set to visit,” Carlson told The Guam Daily Post. “It all depends on Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s and Gov. David Apatang’s availability.”

Both governors are scheduled to attend National Governors Association meetings in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 19-21, the week before the proposed visit.

“BOEM is a division of the Department of the Interior, so they’re well aware of the scheduling,” Carlson said. “All things being equal, both governors, if they return relatively quick from D.C., could be available for meetings that are requested the following week, but they have not confirmed yet.”

Read the full article at the Guam Daily Post