A federal judge has reversed the suspension for work on Revolution Wind, one of the five offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration.
According to combined media reports, Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee on the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said the administration failed to justify its decision to abruptly suspend the lease on the Revolution Wind project over alleged national security concerns, noting that it underwent extensive reviews by the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management before being approved in 2023.
“While the Bureau may order a suspension of operations for legitimate reasons of national security… those suspensions are limited to emergency situations and demonstrated findings of particularized harm that cannot be averted short of a total stop to project activity,” Lamberth said.
Revolution Wind is a joint venture between Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables and Ørsted, and it is designed to provide energy to 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. It was 87% completed when the Trump administration ordered a halt on its construction last month, marking the second time within a year that it disrupted the project.
A hearing on the state of the other four offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration is scheduled for Wednesday. President Trump has been a vocal critic of wind energy, going so far as to declare, “I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills. Maybe we get forced to do something because some stupid person in the Biden administration agreed to do something years ago. We will not approve any windmills in this country.”
