Orsted Wins Ruling to Resume US Wind Project Halted by Trump
January 12, 2026
(Bloomberg) — A US judge ruled Orsted A/S can resume development of a wind farm project off the coast of Rhode Island while it challenges the government’s latest stop-work order, a major win for the Danish energy giant in an ongoing fight with the Trump administration over renewable energy.
The Revolution Wind project, intended to power hundreds of thousands of homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut, “would be irreparably harmed” unless work was allowed to continue during the legal fight, US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Washington concluded Monday. The project is almost 90% complete.
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On Dec. 22, the US Interior Department ordered a 90-day suspension of five East Coast wind farm projects, citing national security concerns. The order, which triggered several legal fights, marked President Donald Trump’s latest effort to hobble the industry as he champions fossil fuels.
After a two-hour hearing, Lamberth said the government’s national security concerns may have been pretext to block the renewable energy project. The judge also said the government waited almost a month to issue the stop-work order after purportedly discovering new security risks, undercutting it’s claim that the situation is an emergency.
“I’m not persuaded any emergency exists in this case,” Lamberth said while issuing his ruling from the bench. He added that the stop-work order may be been “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires government agencies to issue detailed reasons for major rule changes and to allow time for public comment.
A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to the Rhode Island development, Orsted filed a separate lawsuit seeking to resume work on its offshore wind project near New York. Challenges also have been filed by Equinor ASA’s Empire Wind and Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project. The state attorneys general of Rhode Island and Connecticut have also sued and requested separate injunctions against the Revolution Wind stop-work order.
The administration initially halted work on the $5 billion Revolution Wind project in August, triggering a crisis for its owners and the industry as the installation was nearing completion. In September, a federal judge allowed construction to continue, but a second stop-work order was issued last month, when the Interior Department said the massive turbines may interfere with radar systems.
In their request for a new preliminary injunction, project owners said the government’s December order was causing losses of about $1.44 million a day. They said they lost about $105 million from the first construction pause.
The suspensions are part of Trump’s effort to aggressively thwart the growth of the industry as he rolls back Biden-era climate policies. Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order pausing approvals for wind projects on federal lands and water, though it was recently ruled unlawful by a federal judge.
Revolution Wind LLC, co-owned by Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners, claims in its lawsuit that the administration violated its constitutional right to due process by abruptly blocking construction — twice. The company also claimed the stop-work order violated federal law because it was “arbitrary and capricious,” following years of planning and coordination with the US government.
The Interior Department on Dec. 22 announced it was suspending leases for all five major offshore wind projects under construction in the US, including Revolution Wind, a 700-megawatt project expected to power about 350,000 homes.
A day later, the governors of New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island issued a joint statement saying that pausing construction “defies logic, will hurt our bid for energy independence, will drive up costs for America ratepayers, and will make us lose thousands of good-paying jobs.”
The case is Revolution Wind v. Burgum, 25-cv-2999, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
–With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.
(Updates comment from judge, with background on case.)
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