Connecticut and Rhode Island Seek Injunction to Restart Revolution Wind

 

The attorneys general from Connecticut and Rhode Island asked a court on Wednesday for a preliminary injunction against the stop work order imposed on Ørsted’s Revolution Wind offshore wind project. They called the actions by the Trump administration “abrupt and arbitrary,” saying that the states would face “immediate and irreparable harm” if the work did not resume immediately.

Nearly two weeks ago, the states also filed suit in Rhode Island against the stop work order, which was issued on August 22. Their actions are in addition to a suit filed in Washington, D.C. by the project developers. The states are arguing for a preliminary injunction while the legal cases are resolved. They highlight that work has now been stopped for nearly a month on a project that is 80 percent complete. 

The target date for completion of the project was November 2026. A project engineer for Ørsted, however, has said that if the delays continue, completion would be delayed at least till January 2027. The states highlight that Revolution Wind has contracts and obligations to the utility companies in Rhode Island and Connecticut. They said the first deadline is December 31, 2026.

“We have no time to waste in getting Revolution Wind back online, which is why we’re asking the Court to put a stop to this in short order,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha. He highlights union workers who have been sidelined, as well as saying that companies are now reluctant to pursue economic ventures due to the uncertainty created by the stop work order. He also cites rising and increasingly unstable energy costs.

Connecticut Attorney General Tong also said the “nonsensical stop work order” is causing both immediate and irreparable economic and environmental harm to Connecticut. “Every day that Revolution Wind sits mothballed in the ocean is another day of unemployment, another day of unaffordable energy costs, and another day burning fossil fuels when clean, affordable, American-made energy is within our sights,” said Tong.

Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee reports that he wrote to the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on September 3 to outline the status of the project and issues for the states. He requested a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump to negotiate a resolution. The governor said he does not think the administration “fully understands the consequences of what they are doing here.” He has not received a response to the meeting request.

The U.S. Department of Justice, on September 16, made its first court filing responding to the legal challenges to the stop work order. It contends that the project “failed to reach an agreement with the Defense Department on measures to mitigate impacts from electromagnetic emissions and fiber-optic sensors.” 

A report in the Rhode Island Current newspaper highlights that the project received its final federal approvals in November 2023 after years of federal review. However, it was given an extension and a further delay till July 2025 to submit a plan for minimizing interference with federal marine fisheries surveys. It was also working with the Department of Defense on a 2024 agreement to deconflict the project with national defense interests. However, they were not required to submit additional documents to DoD, and it is pointed out that DoD in 2020 had no objections to the project.

After imposing the stop work order, the administration has said it would also seek to challenge other permits issued during the Biden administration. It has filed court challenges to Maryland’s first offshore wind farm and a planned future project for Massachusetts. It permitted New York’s Empire Wind to restart after stopping work for a month in April, leaving Revolution Wind as the only largely installed (or operational) offshore wind farm that the administration is challenging.