Workers install turbine foundations for Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island. (Credit Orsted/Boskalis) – Orsted/Boskalis
Danish and Norwegian energy companies Orsted and Equinor are seeking injunctions against the Trump administration’s order halting construction of all U.S. offshore wind projects.
The $5 billion Revolution Wind project, a 50-50 venture between Orsted, the Danish renewable company, and Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables, filed a supplemental complaint Friday challenging the order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The project, which features turbines as large as skyscrapers, is off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Norwegian company Equinor later Friday said it is also filing a legal challenge over its Empire Wind project off New York in the same court.
The U.S. government in December paused the federal leases for five East Coast projects in the works “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.”
The stoppage was the latest in a series of moves the Trump administration has taken that have shaken the renewable energy industry. Trump has previously paused federal permits and leasing for wind projects both on land and at sea, which threw the industry into months of uncertainty. The president has also directly criticized what he has called “big ugly windmills.”
Orsted said Friday that Revolution Wind would continue working with the administration toward a resolution, but believes the suspension—filed by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management—violates law.
Equinor said that it “has coordinated closely with numerous federal officials on national security reviews since it executed its lease for the project in 2017, including with the Department of War, and has complied with relevant national security related requirements.”
The Interior Department declined to comment on the companies’ legal action.
The government paused the Revolution Wind project in August, a decision that unsettled the industry because it was so close to being finished. The decision left workers waiting on the water, before a federal judge in September said they could resume construction.
The Revolution Wind Project, which aims to provide 704 megawatts of offshore-wind power to Connecticut and Rhode Island and create more than 2,000 direct jobs, secured all required federal and state permits in 2023, Orsted said.
The administration halted Empire Wind in the spring, but it was later allowed to proceed after a negotiation between the administration and Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. Equinor said the Empire Wind project is 60% complete and that dozens of vessels had been working on it.
The project is expected to provide enough power to electrify about 500,000 homes in New York, Equinor said.
The administration’s pause on wind projects also halts Vineyard Wind 1 off Martha’s Vineyard, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and Sunrise Wind off the coast of New York.
There has been more pushback against the Trump administration’s move. Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, last week filed a legal challenge to the Trump order, arguing that the move is arbitrary and capricious.
Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called the pause on wind unlawful in December, and said she was “working closely with impacted states and developers to ensure the projects are completed.”
Write to Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Billy Gray at william.gray@wsj.com