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Dive brief:
- The 800 MW Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts can resume construction, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, in another setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind development with a Dec. 22 stop-work order.
- Vineyard Wind is the fourth offshore wind project to receive a court order against stop-work orders, which cited classified national security concerns as the reason for the pause.. A fifth case is pending.
- Vineyard Wind said that after the order was issued, it reached out “repeatedly” to consult with relevant government agencies “to open a path forward without litigation,” but that those agencies “refused to discuss the allegedly new information about national security impacts or what Vineyard Wind could do to mitigate them.”
Diving knowledge:
Developer Vineyard Wind says the project is 95 percent complete and partially operational as it provides power to the grid. In its order to stop the project, the Office of Ocean Energy Management gave its developers permission to continue activities necessary for power generation. but no more construction.
Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted Vineyard Wind a stay against the stop-work order during a hearing on Tuesday. The preliminary injunction follows similar rulings in cases brought by Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Revolution Wind and Empire Wind. Sunrise Wind is still awaiting a court decision.
The Interior Department, which oversees the Office of Ocean Energy Management, said at the time that last month’s stop-work order was prompted by “national security risks” identified in “recently completed classified reports.”
Interior said the pause would give it, along with the Defense Department and other relevant government agencies, “time to work with tenants and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”
Dominion Energy, which is building the 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, also accused the government of refusing to disclose the nature of the national security concerns behind the work stoppage order.
Vineyard Wind said in a court filing that the stop-work order was costing it $2 million a day in direct and indirect costs and that it was in danger of missing an important construction window if it did not receive relief by Friday.
“The remaining construction requires a specialized vessel that will only be available until March 31, 2026,” Vineyard Wind said, and if an order had come in later than Jan. 30, there would not have been “sufficient time to complete the project before the vessel’s departure.”
“The inability to complete project construction on time jeopardizes the revenue and financing necessary for the project to remain viable, with resulting financial consequences that Vineyard Wind would likely not be able to recover from,” he said.
Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners that is being developed off the coast of Massachusetts. At the time of the work stoppage order, it was capable of producing 572 MW and had been delivering power to the state for nearly a year, said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, D. in a statement of December 22.
Vineyard Wind had also objected to the Trump administration’s refusal to allow the project to install replacement blades on 10 already-built towers that were bare at the time of the stop-work order, posing a safety risk from factors such as lightning, the project said. Vineyard Wind became the subject of controversy in July 2024 after a blade failed and detached from its turbine, scattering fiberglass into the ocean that washed up on the beaches of Nantucket.
In a Premiere on January 27 after Murphy’s ruling, Vineyard Wind said, “As the legal process moves forward, Vineyard Wind will continue to work with the Administration to understand the issues raised in the Order.”
