Judge says work on wind farm off Rhode Island can proceed, for now

The Trump administration had halted construction on the $6.2 billion Revolution Wind project, prompting its developer to sue.

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 was 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 Orsted had filed challenging the Interior Department’s stop-work order.

“Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” Orsted said in a statement. The company noted that the underlying lawsuit was still pending and that the company would “continue to seek to work collaboratively with the U.S. administration and other stakeholders toward a prompt resolution.”

The Trump administration could appeal the decision. The White House and the Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The $6.2 billion Revolution Wind project was 80 percent completed when the Interior Department ordered construction to stop. 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.

When it ordered construction to stop, the Interior Department cited unspecified national security concerns. In response to Orsted’s lawsuit, the government argued that the project failed to comply with some conditions of its permit, including coordinating with the U.S. Navy to avoid risks to military operations.

In court documents, Orsted said it has been losing $2.3 million per day during the stop-work order and argued that the project had already gone through an extensive national security review by the federal government before it received final approval in 2023.

In his ruling, Judge Lambert said Revolution Wind “has demonstrated likelihood of success” on its claims, and said the company would suffer “irreparable harm” if the Trump administration order to stop work remained in place.

The court’s decision is the first significant legal setback to President Trump’s efforts to stifle the U.S. offshore wind industry. In addition to issuing the stop-work order for Revolution Wind, the administration has also sought to rescind permits for offshore wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts and Maryland.

The White House has also enlisted a half-dozen federal agencies to find new ways to thwart offshore wind as part of a governmentwide effort to suppress the industry. That includes asking the Health and Human Services Department to probe the health effects of wind turbines and the Department of Defense to find any national security concerns.