A federal judge on Monday allowed Danish renewable energy company Orsted to resume construction on an offshore wind farm that the Trump administration had blocked.
The judge’s decision is a setback for President Donald Trump’s effort to shut down the nascent offshore wind industry in the U.S.
The Interior Department had ordered Orsted on Aug. 22 to halt construction on Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The project is fully permited and 80% complete. It would provide power for more than 350,000 homes.
Orsted and its partner Skyborn Renewables had asked the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to halt Interior’s stop-work order, arguing that it was aribtrary, capricious, unlawful and “issued in bad faith.”
“Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” Orsted said in a statement Monday after the ruling.
