A federal judge has granted Dominion Energy a preliminary injunction against the stop-work order the Trump administration slapped on the nation’s largest offshore wind project.

In response, Dominion said it would resume construction of Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) and hopes to begin exporting electricity in a matter of weeks.

The Jan. 16 ruling by Judge Jamar K. Walker in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (2:25-cv-00830) was the third such injunction issued in five days, each by a different judge, two of whom had been appointed by Republican presidents.

Counting the September 2025 injunction against an earlier stop work order, the CVOW ruling dropped the Trump administration’s court record on these orders to 0-4.

Work on all five wind farms under construction in U.S. waters was halted Dec. 22 by a Department of Interior directive that cited national security concerns including radar interference.

Developers of all five separately challenged the move in court, starting with CVOW on Dec. 23, then Revolution, Empire, Sunrise and finally, on Jan. 15, Vineyard.

Revolution, which in September secured an injunction against the stop-work order slapped on it alone, won an injunction against the blanket stop-work order Jan. 12. Empire secured its injunction Jan. 15.

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As it promotes fossil fuel and nuclear power development, the Trump administration has moved to thwart renewable energy development to varying degrees, with some emissions-free technologies treated more harshly than others. The president himself has voiced a particular animus for offshore wind, though, and the stop-work orders are just one chapter in his continual campaign against it.

As Revolution, Empire and now CVOW have succeeded in pausing this latest attack, their statements indicate they view the injunctions as progress, not victory.

Dominion said Jan. 16: “While our legal challenge proceeds, we will continue seeking a durable resolution of this matter through cooperation with the federal government.”

CVOW has a nameplate capacity of 2.6 GW — nearly three times more than the next-largest U.S. project — and will feed a grid that has capacity concerns.

PJM on Jan. 9 submitted an amicus brief supporting CVOW’s attempt to lift the stop-work order. It wrote: “Given the long lead times associated with the development of any alternative new generation, let alone delay of this project, extended delay of construction and operation of the CVOW project will cause irreparable harm to the 67 million Americans served by PJM given this region’s (including Virginia’s) critical need for new generation resources to achieve commercial operation in the next few years.”

CVOW has been in the works for more than a decade; recent increases pushed its price tag to more than $11 billion.

Unlike the other four projects, however, CVOW’s developer also is its offtaker. Dominion’s ratepayers still will be on the hook for the cost of the project if it does not generate electricity. The developers of the other projects will recoup their multibillion-dollar investments only through electricity sales.

Along with ratepayers and electric grids, Trump’s campaign against offshore wind threatens an industry that was creating jobs and economic activity.

North America’s Building Trades Unions also filed amicus briefs against the stop-work orders. On Jan. 16, it said: “We applaud this week’s federal court rulings restarting U.S. offshore wind projects. … The shutdown order stalled every East Coast offshore wind project, freezing massive builds in place and sidelining our members, local communities, and urgently needed domestic energy supply.”

Even as it suffers setbacks in court, the Trump administration’s efforts against offshore wind have succeeded in an important sense: They have created such an atmosphere of financial risk and regulatory uncertainty that most developers have suspended or canceled their U.S. plans.

The five projects under construction now appear likely to be the last in U.S. water for years to come. They total 5.8 GW, a far cry from the 30 GW goal the Biden administration set for 2030.