NEW YORK – A US judge on Thursday (Friday, Manila time) authorized work to resume on a New York offshore wind project that had been suspended under an order by President Donald Trump’s administration.
US District Judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction to the Norwegian company Equinor for its Empire Wind project, just three days after a different judge ordered the restart of a project by Denmark’s Orsted.
Trump’s Interior Department in late December suspended all large offshore wind projects in the United States, affecting five projects.
Empire Wind had requested the court’s intervention on an emergency basis, arguing in a January 6 filing that it needed to resume construction by January 16.
Without restarting by that time, “the project faces likely termination due to disruption of a tightly choreographed construction schedule dependent on vessels with constrained availability, delay costs, and the existential threat to the project financing,” said the filing.
The venture’s legal brief described the suspension order as “arbitrary and capricious.”
Nichols granted the motion after a telephone hearing Thursday with the parties. He did not rule on Equinor’s underlying challenge to the Trump administration’s action.
The project, expected to be fully operational by the end of 2027, could provide enough energy to power 500,000 homes.
Equinor has already invested more than $4 billion in the venture, which is about 60 percent complete, the company said.
Empire Wind “will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period,” the company said.
“In addition, the project will continue to engage with the US government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.”
