Saving Seafood

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.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Trump administration moves to revoke permit for Massachusetts offshore wind project

September 22, 2025 — The Trump administration has moved to block a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, filed a motion in federal court Thursday seeking to take back its approval of the SouthCoast Wind project’s “construction and operations plan.’’ The plan is the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start putting turbines in the water.

SouthCoast Wind, to be built in federal waters about 23 miles south of Nantucket, is expected to construct as many as 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The Interior Department action is the latest by the Trump administration in what critics call an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

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.

Read the full article at Rhode Island PBS

Feds cast cloud over SouthCoast Wind project

September 12, 2025 — The future is uncertain for SouthCoast Wind, a planned wind farm south of the islands that would serve Rhode Island and Massachusetts via power cables routed under the Sakonnet River to Brayton Point in Fall River.

Earlier this month, officials from the United States Department of the Interior issued a filing in a Washington, DC court noting that agency officials intend “to reconsider” approval of the project. The news comes just weeks after the Trump Administration ordered work halted on Revolution Wind, another farm off the coast of Rhode Island that was 80 percent built out when work was ordered to stop.

The Sept. 2 filing was associated with a civil suit brought by Nantucket against Southcoast Wind, the federal Department of the Interior and the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Filings also note that Interior officials seek a “voluntary remand” of previous federal approvals by this coming Thursday, Sept. 18.

Southcoast Wind, a 2.4-gigawatt farm that company officials said would power more than 800,000 homes in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, is currently under review by the BOEM following the Biden administration’s approval late last year of 127,000-acre ocean lease area about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 23 miles south of Nantucket.

The plan has always been to connect electric cables from the site through federal and state waters, including the Sakonnet River, and eventually to an electrical substation at Brayton Point in Somerset, where it would link to the regional electric grid.

Read the full article at East Bay RI

Could Revolution Wind get back to work? Burgum comments suggest anything is possible.

September 11, 2025 — A week after Gov. Dan McKee asked to meet with President Donald Trump over the administration’s halt to the Revolution Wind project, he’s still waiting for an answer.

But U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is suggesting the paused project might not be dead in the water after all. In an interview on CNBC Wednesday, Burgum, whose office oversees federal permits for offshore wind projects, indicated the administration was open to letting work resume on the 65-turbine project.

Read the full article at Yahoo News!

How New England is handling Trump’s offshore wind assault

September 10, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s war on offshore wind power is clobbering New England, and officials there are warning of future grid reliability problems. In this new energy reality, though, many states in the region say they will try their best to muddle through.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has stunned states and industry alike with a whirlwind of actions, highlighted by halting a nearly complete project off Rhode Island’s coast — Revolution Wind — and seeking to revoke a permit for a Massachusetts project. Other crucial projects in the region have been caught up in a temporary pause on leases.

In a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump reiterated his hatred of wind. “We’re not allowing any windmills to go up,” he said. “They’re ruining our country.”

Read the full article at E&E News

Ørsted and Iberdrola Are Trying to Save U.S. Offshore Wind Investments

September 9, 2025 — Two major offshore wind developers,  Ørsted and Iberdrola, have efforts underway to save their offshore wind projects in the United States. The companies are reportedly trying to win over the Trump administration, which opposes offshore wind energy, by emphasizing the larger investments in the United States.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Bloomberg reports, confirmed that the administration is “actively engaged in discussions” with Ørsted over the future of the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. According to the reports, Wright, during a presentation at the Council of Foreign Relations, confirmed that there is “a very active dialogue,” saying the issues of the wind farm were being “worked and discussed.”

Last month, the Trump administration issued a stop work order for the project, which Ørsted said is 80 percent installed. The company highlighted its large investment, saying that all of the foundations for the 704 MW wind farm are installed and that 45 out of the 65 wind turbines have also been installed. The export cabling and the onshore power substation are nearly complete.

Ørsted filed a lawsuit challenging the legal authority to suspend the project, calling it a necessary step. The company, however, also said it was continuing to seek a resolution with the administration.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

How many lawsuits does it take to restart Revolution Wind? More than one.

September 8, 2025 — Hours before a federal judge in Boston was set to hear arguments on the Trump administration’s executive order stopping offshore wind reviews, two separate lawsuits seeking to reverse the recent stop work order on nearly completed Revolution Wind project were announced Thursday.

Revolution Wind, a joint venture between Ørsted and a consortium led by Skyborn Renewables, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. challenging the stop work order issued Aug. 22 by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The multibillion dollar project was 80% complete and scheduled to begin delivering 704 megawatts of power to 350,000 homes across Rhode Island and Connecticut starting in mid-2026.

Meaghan Wims, an Ørsted spokeswoman, said the company will continue to seek to work collaboratively with the Trump administration and other stakeholders but believed the federal government lacked legal authority for the stop work order. All required federal and state permits for the 65-turbine wind farm in Rhode Island Sound were secured in 2023 after a review process that lasted seven years.

“The project is facing substantial harm from continuation of the stop-work order, and as a result, litigation is a necessary step,” Wims said.

Soon after Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables filed their lawsuit, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha informed reporters of his intention to file a lawsuit with his Connecticut counterpart seeking to reverse the Trump administration’s decision. The lawsuit was filed Thursday afternoon in the U.S. District of Rhode Island in Providence.

“We have begun and built an industry here in Rhode Island that can continue to grow and provide jobs to Rhode Islanders and build our economy,” Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters at a morning press conference in his Providence office. “We’re on the cusp of building that economy, and the president stopped it unlawfully.”

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current

States and developer sue the Trump administration for halting work on New England offshore wind farm

September 5, 2025 — Connecticut, Rhode Island and the developer of an offshore wind farm that would power 350,000 homes in the two states said Thursday that they’re suing the Trump administration for stopping the nearly completed project.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha accused President Donald Trump of waging an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry. The states’ lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, describes the Revolution Wind project as a “cornerstone” of their clean energy future, abruptly halted by federal officials without “statutory authority, regulatory justification or factual basis.”

Danish energy company Orsted filed a separate suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., also arguing that the administration lacks the legal authority to block the Revolution Wind project. Orsted said it would seek a preliminary injunction that would allow it to move forward with the project, which is 80% complete, with all underwater foundations and 45 of 65 turbines installed.

Read the full article at the Associated Press