BOSTON — A federal judge ruled Friday that work on a Virginia offshore wind project could resume, the third project this week to successfully challenge the Trump administration in court.
The administration announced last month it was suspending leases for at least 90 days on five East Coast offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about those concerns.
Developers and states sued in an effort to block the order. Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, was the first.
A judge said he was granting the company’s request for a preliminary injunction, according to the record from the hearing.
This allows construction to resume while Dominion Energy’s lawsuit challenging the government’s order proceeds.
In federal court for the District of Columbia, judges ruled this week that construction could also resume on the Empire Wind project for New York by Norwegian company Equinor, and the Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut, by Danish company Orsted.
Revolution Wind is locate twelve miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.
Orsted is also suing over the pause of its Sunrise Wind project for New York.
The fifth paused project is Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which joined the grid in 2024, and has been under further development. They joined the rest of the developers in challenging the administration on Thursday and filed a complaint in District Court in Boston.
Story by The Associated Press
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