Trump Administration’s Halt on Rhode Island Offshore Wind Project is Unjustified, Developer Says

Sept 18 (Reuters) – The owners of Revolution Wind said the Trump administration’s reasons for stopping work on its Rhode Island offshore wind farm were “factually incorrect” and only disclosed after it had ordered a halt to the project, according to court documents filed on Thursday.

The filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is part of a lawsuit brought earlier this month by joint venture partners Orsted and Skyborn Renewables challenging a stop-work order issued to Revolution Wind by the Department of the Interior in August.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized wind energy as ugly, unreliable, and expensive, and his administration is leaning on multiple federal agencies to rein in wind development.

Revolution Wind is seeking a preliminary injunction to restart work on the project. A hearing is scheduled for next week.

The August stop-work order from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the project was being halted due to unspecified national security concerns.

But in a reply to Revolution Wind’s complaint last week, the administration for the first time publicly offered more detail on its reasoning, saying the project had failed to comply with some conditions of its permit.

Those conditions include requirements to coordinate with Navy vessels at sea during construction and mitigate risks to military operations from fiber sensing and acoustic monitoring equipment used by the project.

The Trump administration also alleged that the project has failed to outline efforts to mitigate its impact on scientific surveys conducted by government scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Revolution Wind said it has coordinated with the Navy and NOAA, adding that the administration’s filing “belatedly asserts – for the first time – purported failures that were not mentioned in the Stop Work Order or identified to Revolution Wind until they were newly advanced in this litigation, and each of which is factually incorrect.”

Revolution Wind is 80% complete with all offshore foundations in place and 45 out of 65 wind turbines installed, according to Orsted.

The project was scheduled to be completed next year, and was expected to produce enough electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Chris Reese and Sonali Paul)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.

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