Trump Administration Asks Court to Let It Re-Evaluate Revolution Wind's COP
The Trump administration is renewing its challenges to Ørsted’s offshore wind farm, Revolution Wind, located off the coast of Rhode Island. The Department of Justice is asking a District Court in the District of Columbia to remand its prior approval of the construction and operations plan (“COP”) for further review on a project that has completed construction and is in the final stages of commissioning.
It marks the third time the Trump administration has challenged the 704 MW wind farm project, which is contracted to supply power to Connecticut and Rhode Island. In August 2025, it sought to stop construction while the project was approximately 80 percent complete, but it was rejected by the courts. In December 2025, the administration included Revolution Wind in its stop-work orders, this time contending the operations posed a risk to national security due to the potential for radar interference. The courts again rejected the stop-work order and let the project resume construction in January 2026.
The Department of Justice made its new filing in a case being pursued by an environmental group that has been challenging the project in the courts for years. Green Ocean has been suing the Department of the Interior and Revolution Wind, contending the project would cause harm to the environment.
The new filing made on October 9 asked the court to grant Green Ocean a summary judgment on its claims against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, related to the approval of the project. Further, it says the Department of the Interior agrees that remand of its prior approval of the construction and operations plan (COP) for the Revolution Wind Project is warranted so that the agency can reevaluate its compliance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
The project gained its approval in 2023 during the closing days of the Biden administration. The Trump administration is alleging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the approval after it found that its preferred alternative was “expected to have major impacts on commercial fisheries and for-hire recreational fishing; cultural resources; other marine uses: scientific research and surveys; and visual resources.”
The federal government is asking the court to send the approval of the COP back to the Department of Interior for further review. It would create a state of uncertainty for the project after years of review.
Revolution Wind, which is located approximately 15 nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island, completed the installation of its final, number 65, wind turbine in September. It had begun delivering power to the grid in March 2026 and is in the final stages of commissioning, with the project expected to be fully completed by the end of the year.
Revolution Wind represents a $6.2 billion investment led by Ørted. Its investment partner in the project is Skyborn Renewables, which is owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, a division of BlackRock.
While the administration has repeatedly sought to derail offshore wind energy projects and faces several lawsuits, this move came as a surprise. Last month, the U.S. Senate reported it had reached a bipartisan compromise for the overhaul of the permitting process for large infrastructure projects. It included power plants and cabling.
that matters most
Get the latest maritime news delivered to your inbox daily.
The Republicans are anxious to move reforms forward, citing the growing power demands, especially for AI data centers, a priority of the administration. Democrats made a condition of their support for the reforms an agreement that the administration would stop its challenges to previously permitted renewable energy projects, including offshore wind and solar. Experts point out that the new challenge to Revolution Wind would likely endanger the compromise for overhauling the approval process for infrastructure projects.
The Financial Times reports the Pentagon had recently sent out documents indicating it was resuming some of the reviews it had stalled earlier in the Trump administration. The delays in the reviews had become an issue for the courts after an earlier decision that said the administration could not have an open-ended review of the approval process. In addition to the court cases challenging individual projects, the administration has been sued both by California and a coalition of eastern states over its buybacks of offshore wind leases.
