A U.S. judge on Monday cleared Denmark’s Orsted to resume work on its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York, dealing yet another blow to Trump administration efforts to halt offshore wind activity in federal waters.
The preliminary injunction request was the fifth brought by an offshore wind developer since the Interior Department’s December 22 pause on five offshore wind leases. The agency stopped work on the multi-billion-dollar facilities due to national security concerns around radar interference.
An Interior Department spokesperson said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.
Orsted has spent or committed more than $7 billion to date to build Sunrise Wind, the company said. If the stop-work order is not lifted by February 6, the project risks losing access to a specialized vessel needed to complete installation of an offshore cable, Orsted attorneys argued at the hearing.
The argument was similar to those made at four other hearings in recent weeks. Four projects, including Orsted’s Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island, have won court orders to resume construction while their underlying lawsuits proceed.
