Offshore wind developer prevails in court as Trump says the US 'will not
approve any windmills'
[January 13, 2026] By
JENNIFER McDERMOTT
A federal judge ruled Monday that work on a major offshore wind farm for
Rhode Island and Connecticut can resume, handing the industry at least a
temporary victory as President Donald Trump seeks to shut it down.
At the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Senior Judge
Royce Lamberth said the government did not explain why it could not take
action short of a complete stop to construction on Revolution Wind while
it considers ways to mitigate its national security concerns. He said it
also did not provide sufficient reasoning for its change in position.
Revolution Wind has received all of its federal permits and is nearly
90% complete to provide power for Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Trump says his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built. Three energy
developers are challenging the administration’s freeze of their offshore
wind projects in the federal courts this week.
Danish energy company Orsted, Norwegian company Equinor, and Dominion
Energy Virginia each sued to ask the courts to vacate and set aside the
administration’s Dec. 22 order to freeze five big projects on the East
Coast over national security concerns. Orsted’s hearing was first on its
Revolution Wind project. Orsted said it will soon resume construction to
deliver affordable, reliable power to the Northeast.
The administration did not reveal specifics about its national security
concerns, but Trump said Friday while meeting with oil industry
executives about investing in Venezuela that wind farms are “losers.” He
said they lose money, destroy the landscape and kill birds.
“I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills,” Trump said. “Maybe
we get forced to do something because some stupid person in the Biden
administration agreed to do something years ago. We will not approve any
windmills in this country.”
The Biden administration sought to ramp up offshore wind as a climate
change solution. Trump began reversing the country’s energy policies his
first day in office with a spate of executive orders aimed at boosting
oil, gas and coal. A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump
administration acted illegally when it canceled $7.6 billion in clean
energy grants for projects in states that voted for Democrat Kamala
Harris in the 2024 election.
The Trump administration paused leases for the Vineyard Wind project
under construction in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia
Offshore Wind, and two projects in New York: Sunrise Wind and Empire
Wind. New York’s attorney general sued the Trump administration on
Friday over Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind.
Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind are both major offshore wind projects
by Orsted. Rhode Island and Connecticut filed their own request in court
to try to save Revolution Wind.
“The law takes precedent over the political whims of one man, and we
will continue to fight to make sure that remains the case,” Rhode Island
Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement.
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Wind turbine bases, generators and blades sit along with support
ships at The Portsmouth Marine terminal that is the staging area for
Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia
Offshore Wind, Dec. 22, 2025, in Portsmouth, Va. (AP Photo/Steve
Helber, File)
 At Monday's hearing, attorney Janice
Schneider, representing Revolution Wind, said the stop work order
came at a critical stage of construction, with the project nearly
90% built and weeks away from beginning to deliver power to the
electric grid. She said the delay is costing more than $1.4 million
per day, and a specialized vessel has just enough time now to
install the remaining turbines before its contract is up at the site
in February.
Schneider said they take national security issues seriously, but the
government has not shared more information about its concerns with
their experts who have security clearances, or shared unclassified
summaries.
“We do think that this court should be very skeptical of the
government’s true motives here," Schneider said, citing Trump's
comments from Friday.
Department of Justice attorney Peter Torstensen argued that national
security is paramount and protecting against new risks identified in
the classified materials outweighs any alleged irreparable harm to
the developers.
Work on the Revolution Wind project was previously paused on Aug. 22
for what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said were national
security concerns. A month later, Judge Lamberth ruled the project
could resume, citing the irreparable harm to the developers and the
demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.
Orsted is building it with Skyborn Renewables.
With four offshore wind projects still stalled, Hillary Bright,
executive director of offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward,
said she's hopeful that they will prevail in court and that the
administration will begin to understand "the immense benefits that
these nearly complete power sources can bring to our nation’s energy
and national security.”
Equinor owns Empire Wind. Its limited liability company, Empire Wind
LLC, said the project faces “likely termination” if construction
can’t resume by this Friday because the order disrupts a tightly
choreographed construction schedule dependent on vessels with very
limited availability. Its hearing is Wednesday.
“I would like to think that offshore wind is, and will continue to
be, part of an all-of-the-above energy solution, which our country
desperately needs,” said Molly Morris, Equinor’s senior vice
president overseeing Empire Wind.
Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia
Offshore Wind, was the first to sue. It’s asking a judge to block
the order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious” and
unconstitutional. Its hearing is Friday.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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