Trump’s attempts to kill offshore wind aren’t working

By Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge on Monday dealt a fifth blow to the Trump administration’s attempts to kill the offshore wind farms under construction up and down the east coast.

In December, Trump suspended all five offshore wind projects under construction in federal waters off the coast of New England, New York and Virginia — grinding construction to a halt. But since then, developers have had a string of successive wins in court challenging the move. Wind developers are now 5-0 in court battles with the administration.

On Monday, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia became the latest to issue a preliminary injunction allowing the New York-based Sunrise Wind — owned by Danish energy company Ørsted — to resume construction.

In December, the Trump Interior Department cited “national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports” as a justification for the the suspensions — but didn’t say specifically what those risks were.

Ruling from the bench after a court hearing on Monday, Lamberth said that was not “a sufficient explanation for the bureau’s decision to entirely stop work on the Sunrise Wind project.” The judge stated that “irreparable harm” would happen if the halt continued.

Sunrise Wind is nearly half complete, with 44 out of 84 total turbine foundations installed. Like other paused projects, it was losing substantial amounts of money, more than $1 million every day of the pause, Ørsted said in court filings. In a statement, Ørsted said the project would “restart impacted activities immediately.”

Court proceedings are ongoing, but each project has been allowed to proceed after developers said they were at risk of losing access to specialized construction ships and other key equipment needed to complete the job. The US Department of Justice declined to comment on whether it planned to appeal the five preliminary injunctions.

The other wind projects that have been allowed to continue include Empire Wind, also off the coast of New York; Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Connecticut; the nearly-complete Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts and the massive Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

The delays in these projects will almost certainly inflate their price tags. The Virginia CVOW project, by far the largest offshore wind farm in the United States, was losing more than $5 million per day while construction was halted in December and January, according to court filings.

A recent analysis from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said the administration’s efforts “could cost consumers billions of dollars and keep much-needed new electricity off the grid.”

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