A sweeping order issued late last year by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) suspending work on all five current offshore wind developments along the Atlantic seaboard faces its first test in federal court on January 16.
The breadth of the December 22 order was a significant escalation of the US administration’s campaign against offshore wind, which has already seen stop-work orders issued against two projects last year. Both of those orders were overturned by federal courts.
The latest order cited national security concerns but provided no substantiation of what those might be. Within days of the order, three of the four main developers, as well as two states, filed suit to have the latest order vacated.
The first to the courthouse steps was Dominion Energy, developer of the largest US project, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW). That is the suit that will be heard on January 16. Litigation was also brought by Ørsted, developer of Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind; Equinor, developer of Empire Wind; and the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island, which are to receive power from Revolution Wind.
“BOEM’s order sets forth no rational basis [and] cannot be reconciled with BOEM’s own regulations and prior issued lease terms and approvals,” Dominion stated in its filing. The order “is arbitrary and capricious, is procedurally deficient, violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and infringes upon constitutional principles that limit actions by the Executive Branch. This court must therefore vacate the order and enjoin BOEM from taking further action with respect to that order.”
In the joint states filing, Connecticut attorney general William Tong wrote: “Donald Trump is escalating his lawless and erratic attack on Connecticut ratepayers and workers. Every day this project is stalled costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated energy bills when families are in dire need of relief. Revolution Wind was vetted and approved, and the Trump administration has yet to disclose a shred of evidence to counter that thorough and careful process.”
The fifth project, the only one not to file suit so far, is Vineyard Wind, being developed by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
