A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction that will temporarily allow for the continued construction on a nearly completed offshore wind project that was shut down by the Trump administration.
The Hill reports Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, said work can resume on the Revolution Wind project, which is 80% finished. The project, which is designed to provide electric power to 350,000 households in Connecticut and Rhode Island, was halted last month by the administration over unspecified national security concerns.
Lamberth’s ruling stated that Orsted and Skyborn Renewables, the developers behind the project, were “likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction.”
Orsted issued a statement that it would “continue to seek to work collaboratively with the US Administration and other stakeholders toward a prompt resolution.” A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior issued a statement that suggested a collaborative resolution was not the goal of the administration.
“As a result of the Court’s decision today, Revolution Wind will be able to resume construction as BOEM [the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] continues its investigation into possible impacts by the project to national security and prevention of other uses on the Outer Continental Shelf,” the statement said. “The Department of the Interior remains committed to ensuring that prior decisions are legally and factually sound.”
