Construction Restarts on Sunrise Offshore Wind Project After Federal Judge's Ruling

All five offshore wind projects halted by the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) are now resuming construction after the latest federal judge's preliminary injunction against the Trump Administration's stop-work orders.

District of Columbia District Judge Royce Lambeth issued a preliminary injunction Monday which allows the Sunrise Wind offshore project to restart construction. Lambeth was the same federal judge who granted similar requests to the Revolution Wind offshore project.

The preliminary injunctions allow work to resume until a new counteractive court order or federal trail outcome is completed. 

Sunrise and Revolution are both being developed by Orsted. They are two of five major offshore wind farms impacted by the Trump DOI's pause orders issued in December.

Those five included Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Vineyard 1, Sunrise and Empire Wind 1.

Revolution, Vineyard and Coastal Virginia offshore wind farms are deep into their construction phases with plans to come online next year. Sunrise Wind and Empire are scheduled for commissioning in 2027. Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is being developed and owned by utility Dominion Energy.

Together and once completed, the five projects are funded by billions of dollars in private investments and would generate multiple GWs of carbon-free electricity into the east coast grid. The Trump Administration, however, is prioritizing natural gas and nuclear generation for the near future, and twice has announced orders to stop work on those offshore wind projects. 

The Interior Department cited recently declassified natural security concerns about offshore wind as part of the reasoning behind the stop-work orders on nearly finished projects. 

“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, in the December statement. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers. The Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.”

Offshore wind developers such as Orsted said they consulted with the military and cleared any security concerns 

More about the DC District Court ruling allowing construction to resume on Sunrise Wind is detailed in this story by Offshore magazine online. Offshore and EnergyTech are both part of Endeavor B2B.