In three separate rulings last week, federal judges granted preliminary injunctions to three US offshore wind projects, allowing construction to continue despite a sweeping suspension order issued by the US administration late last year. The remaining two projects are due to appear in court shortly.
On January 16, the USA’s largest project, Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, was allowed to resume work by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia until its request for a permanent injunction against the December 22 suspension order from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is decided.
Earlier in the week Revolution Wind, being built by Ørsted and Global Infrastructure Partners; and Empire Wind, being built by Equinor, were also granted preliminary injunctions to resume work. Equinor is building the fourth project, Sunrise Wind, on its own. Avangrid, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are building the fifth development, Vineyard Wind. The states of Connecticut and Rhode Island, which will receive power from Revolution Wind, have also filed suit to allow that project to be completed.
In issuing the suspension order BOEM cited national security interests, but has so far not provided any details despite requests from courts and plaintiffs. Spinning turbine blades can have an effect on low-level radar, but developers stressed in their filings and public statements that those effects are well known and that both the Department of Defense and Coast Guard were part of and raised no objections through the years-long permitting processes for the projects
The administration has been highly vocal in its opposition to offshore wind. In the months before the broad BOEM order, both Revolution Wind and Empire Wind were subject to individual stop-work orders. Both were granted preliminary injunctions allowing them to proceed. In most of the filings developers have asserted that government efforts to stop the developments that are in most cases close to completion are “arbitrary and capricious.” So far, judges have agreed.
