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Federal judge rules Dominion Energy can resume construction on Virginia Beach offshore wind farm

January 20, 2026 — A judge in Norfolk on Friday ruled in favor of Dominion Energy, allowing the utility to restart construction on its offshore wind project after the federal government halted it late last year.

The Trump administration cited recently uncovered risks to national security when it issued a 90-day stop-work order on Dec. 22.

But U.S. District Court Judge Jamar Walker said the order, which applied to five wind projects along the East Coast, did not outline how construction on the Virginia project specifically poses a risk to national security.

He said an extended pause on the project would cause irreparable harm to Dominion, which says it’s losing $5 million per day during the stoppage.

Walker granted Dominion a preliminary injunction, which allows the company to resume construction while the case proceeds in court.

The $11 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, or CVOW, stretches about 27 to 44 miles off the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. It’s expected to start delivering electricity to the grid soon and finish construction later this year. Dominion already spent $9 billion on the project, which would become the nation’s largest commercial offshore wind farm.

“Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks,” the utility said in a statement following the ruling. “While our legal challenge proceeds, we will continue seeking a durable resolution of this matter through cooperation with the federal government.”

Read the full article at WHRO

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

VIRGINIA: Here’s what’s happening with the federal pause on Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm in Virginia Beach

January 14, 2026 — Dominion is suing the Interior Department for the December order, which the utility calls “arbitrary and capricious.”

The Trump administration is continuing its campaign against the offshore wind industry, and Dominion Energy is now one of the targets.

The U.S. Interior Department last month issued a 90-day pause for work on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, as well as four others in New England. Officials cited national security risks “identified in recently completed classified reports.”

The $11 billion Virginia Beach project, which stretches about 27 to 44 miles off the Oceanfront, was expected to start delivering electricity to the grid within months and finish construction later this year.

“We stand ready to do what is necessary to get these vital electrons flowing as quickly as possible,” the utility stated in a December news release.

Dominion quickly sued the federal government, calling the stop-work order “arbitrary and capricious.” The first hearing in the case is set for Friday in Norfolk.

Read the full article at WHRO

Judge Delays Dominion’s Offshore Wind Suit Awaiting U.S. Data

December 31, 2025 — The first showdown over the U.S. Department of the Interior’s efforts to stop the construction of five offshore wind farms is being delayed as a U.S. District Court in Virginia waits for data from the government. Dominion Energy’s efforts to gain a temporary restraining order to permit it to restart work were delayed, with the next hearing set for January 16.

Dominion Energy and its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is one of five that were ordered to stop offshore work by the Department of the Interior, which made vague claims about national security concerns due to radar clutter caused by the turbine blades and towers. The government cited new confidential data from studies by the Pentagon as the justification for the orders.

The five projects are all under construction, and in the case of Coastal Virginia and Vineyard Wind 1 in Massachusetts nearing completion. Dominion asserted in its court filing that the stop-work order is costing the company $5 million a day and said it could jeopardize completion of the wind farm on time in 2026 and the stability of the power grid, which needs more electricity. Coastal Virginia was expected to generate its first power in early 2026.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Virginia offshore wind developer sues over Trump administration order halting projects

December 29, 2025 — The developers of a Virginia offshore wind project are asking a federal judge to block a Trump administration order that halted construction of their project, along with four others, over national security concerns.

Dominion Energy Virginia said in its lawsuit filed late Tuesday that the government’s order is “arbitrary and capricious” and unconstitutional. The Richmond-based company is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, a project it says is essential to meet dramatically growing energy needs driven by dozens of new data centers.

The Interior Department did not detail the security concerns in blocking the five projects on Monday. In a letter to project developers, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management set a 90-day period — and possibly longer — “to determine whether the national security threats posed by this project can be adequately mitigated.”

Read the full article at The Associated Press

VIRGINIA: Virginia’s 2.6 GW offshore wind project remains on schedule for late-2026 completion despite rising costs

November 13, 2025 — The US wind sector has faced some troubling times as of late, with US President Donald Trump rolling back permits and forcing wind operators to cancel planned projects. Despite that, Virginia’s 2.6 GW offshore wind project remains on track for a late-2026 completion date. The project is being developed by Dominion Energy and has been subject to some problems due to rising costs, but it remains on schedule. Virginia is set to become the home of the US wind sector once the project has been completed and is feeding clean, renewable energy to the millions of Virginia households.

Dominion has stated that the project will be the largest by capacity in the United States

The planned 2.6 GW offshore wind project will easily be the largest by capacity in the United States, once it has been completed. Dominion Energy is an exceedingly large energy company that provides electricity to over 3.6 million customers in Virginia and the Carolinas. Additionally, the firm also provides regulated natural gas services to about 500,000 customers in South Carolina.

Dominion’s quarterly performance for Q3 has been a sight for sore eyes in the American energy sector, boasting operating earnings of $921 million, which is significantly higher than the same period last year. In Q3, Dominion’s regulated electric sales rose 3.3% year over year, marking an important milestone in the company’s future in the United States.

Read the full article at Energies Media

Kennedy orders CDC study of potential offshore wind hazards

November 3, 2025 — Voters are choosing new governors Tuesday in Virginia and New Jersey, states where ambitious plans for offshore wind projects run against the Trump administration’s political and legal war on renewable energy projects.

Days before, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate potential health and safety hazards from offshore wind turbines, a new front in the Trump administration’s offensive to squelch wind power development.

The administration and its executive departments like HHS have effectively derailed many of the wind industry’s earlier project approvals granted under the Biden administration. But some ongoing construction projects survive, notably Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project (CVOW), as power demands and costs escalate in the Mid-Atlantic states. Kennedy’s new review could revisit longstanding health and safety claims by offshore wind opponents, including electromagnetic effects of turbine array cables and transmission lines.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: America’s biggest offshore wind farm will be online in 6 months

October 22, 2025 — About 30 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia, workers have been building America’s largest offshore wind farm at a breakneck pace. The project will start feeding power to the grid by March — the most definitive start date provided by its developer yet.

“First power will occur in Q1 of next year,” Dominion Energy spokesperson Jeremy Slayton told Canary Media. ​“And we are still on schedule to complete by late 2026.”

In an August earnings call, Dominion Energy CEO Robert Blue provided a vague window of ​“early 2026” when asked when the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, or CVOW, project would start generating renewable power for the energy-hungry state.

As of the end of September, Dominion had installed all 176 turbine foundations — ​“a big, important milestone,” per Slayton. That accomplishment involved pile-driving 98 foundations into the soft seabed during the five-month stretch when such work is permitted. Good weather helped the work move along quickly, as did the Atlantic Ocean’s unusually quiet hurricane season.

Speed is key when building wind projects under the eye of a president who has called turbines ​​“ugly” and ​​“terrible for tourism” — and who has followed up with attempts to dismantle the industry.

Had CVOW not finished foundation installation by the end of this month, turbine construction would have been delayed until next spring. Federal permitting restricts pile-driving to a May-through-October window to protect migrating North Atlantic right whales. Such a delay would have made CVOW more vulnerable to the wrath of the Trump administration, which has already issued stop-work orders to two offshore wind farms under construction.

Read the full article at Grist

VIRGINIA: US government halts nearly complete offshore wind farm. Is Virginia’s next?

August 27, 2025 — After the Trump administration has ordered a halt to construction of a nearly complete $4 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Dominion Energy’s $10.9 billion  project off the coast of Virginia Beach could be in similar peril.

On Aug. 22, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management stopped Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, which already has 45 of 65 turbines installed, along with all underwater foundations. Citing a January memorandum by , BOEM told Orsted North America to “halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind Project” while the federal government reviews potential national security concerns.

Read the full article at Virginia Business 

VIRGINIA: Virginia’s massive offshore wind project lives on

July 10, 2025 — Virginia’s massive wind farm is still under construction, despite the federal rollback on green energy programs.

The future is still blowing in the wind off of Virginia Beach, where Dominion Energy is building a massive wind farm that will power more than 600,000 homes at peak output. The budget reconciliation package recently passed by Congress and signed by the president rolled back many Biden-era environmental initiatives, but not Virginia’s wind farm.

“You cannot discount the political influence of monopoly utilities,” says Tim Cywinski at the Sierra Club. “Dominion is a very rich and politically connected company, and they give a lot of political contributions. This project is also something that has bipartisan support. So, it really doesn’t seem like a political win to cancel something that’s really been lifted off the ground and been promised and hailed as a success story for both political parties.”

Read the full article at WVTF