Equinor has won a temporary injunction against the Trump administration’s stop-work order on U.S. offshore wind projects, allowing it to resume work on Empire Wind.
The Department of the Interior on Dec. 22 shut down work on all five projects under construction in U.S. waters, citing national security concerns.
Empire, which incurred millions of dollars in added costs from a month-long stop-work order in April and May 2025, filed a challenge to the new stop-work order Jan. 2 and a motion for preliminary injunction Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (1:26-cv-00004).
After a Jan. 14 hearing, District Judge Carl Nichols — appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump in 2019 — granted the motion Jan. 15.
Equinor, which holds an offtake contract with New York for the 810-MW Empire Wind project, had told the court it likely would need to abandon the project if it could not resume work by Jan. 16. With any further delay, it said, crews would not be able to finish a key component before the specialized installation vessels had to depart for the next contracted work.
Later Jan. 15, Equinor said: “Empire Wind will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period. In addition, the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.”
It was the second court victory this week for the beleaguered U.S. offshore wind sector.
On Jan. 12, another Republican-appointed federal judge lifted the stop-work order on Revolution Wind, a 704-MW project nearing completion off the New England coast. (See Judge Again Lifts Revolution Wind Stop-work Order.) The same judge also lifted the Trump administration’s August stop-work order against Revolution.
Meanwhile, Dominion Energy is contesting the stop-work order on Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, a 2.6-GW wind farm near completion, and Ørsted is fighting to restart work on the 924-MW Sunrise Wind, an earlier-stage New York project. (See Offshore Wind Developers Fight to get Back in the Water.)
Vineyard Wind was the last project to join the legal fray. On Jan. 15, it filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts (1:26-cv-10156) asking the court to declare the stop work order unlawful and allow work to resume.
The Avangrid-Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners joint venture is 95% complete and already able to send 572 MW of its planned 800-MW capacity to the New England grid, according to the court filing. Construction began in 2021 and was on track to be completed by March 31.
In a statement, the developers said they will continue to work with federal regulators to understand the matters raised in the stop-work order but believe the order was unlawful and said if it is not promptly enjoined it will cause immediate and irreparable harm to the project and the communities that will benefit from it.
Despite the setbacks it has sustained in court, the Trump administration has succeeded to a significant degree in its bid to thwart offshore wind development: The level of risk it has created has scared away further investment.
The five offshore wind projects hit with the Dec. 22 stop-work order constitute the entire large-scale U.S. offshore wind sector, and they appear unlikely to be followed by others anytime soon. To cite the obvious example, Empire Wind 2 has been shelved indefinitely.
Oceantic Network welcomed the Jan. 15 ruling: “Empire Wind is critical to securing New York’s electric grid, stabilizing rising energy costs for local communities, creating jobs, and achieving energy independence, underscoring the importance of building out America’s energy infrastructure to meet rising electricity demand.”
Regional Plan Association hailed the win but warned it is not a final victory: “Despite the good news of these decisions, they still do not ensure that these projects will be completed. The court rulings are temporary injunctions that allow the companies to continue to build while the lawsuits against the administration’s efforts to stop them make their way through the courts. Even an ultimate victory against the administration’s freeze — based on supposed national security concerns — does not prevent them from taking additional steps to disrupt, delay, or cease the projects.”
Advanced Energy United said: “Restarting Empire Wind is a major win. This project will deliver clean power and local jobs exactly when we need them the most. Today’s ruling shows that smart energy planning beats political games every time — and that delaying critical projects only drives up costs for consumers.”
