Court rules Trump is wrong on wind - again
By Ariana Figueroa and Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
Judge Royce C. Lamberth rejected the Trump administration’s national security arguments, finding they didn’t provide “a sufficient explanation” for issuing a Dec. 22 stop work order on Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine project already 87% completed. He found the entire 704-megawatt project would be imperiled if he did not order work to resume and issued a preliminary injunction to block the administration’s pause.
Lamberth was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan.
Project developers along with state attorneys general in Rhode Island and Connecticut filed new motions in an existing federal lawsuit in January after the Interior Department last month suspended construction. Four other projects off the coasts of Massachusetts, Virginia and New York were also subject to the stop work order. Rhode Island’s is the first to be overturned.
Construction will resume “as soon as possible,” Meaghan Wims, a spokesperson for Orsted A/S, project co-developer, said in a statement Monday.
Wims also addressed the still unresolved, longer term dispute between the Trump administration and project developers, pledging that the company “will determine how best it may be possible to work with the US Administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution.”
“We refuse to accept this Administration’s unlawful attempts to hinder progress on the Revolution Wind project, and today’s legal victory reaffirms that we are right on the law,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement after the preliminary injunction was granted. “The law takes precedent over the political whims of one man, and we will continue to fight to make sure that remains the case.”
Gov. Dan McKee also commended the court decision in a statement Monday.
“Today’s court decision puts Revolution Wind back on track, despite the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to derail this important project,” McKee said, noting the project’s importance for energy affordability, job creation and climate goals. Energy affordability has been a top concern of the executive branch in recent months, and is expected to feature prominently in his 2026 State of State address Tuesday night.
For the developers, the suspension created “enterprise-threatening, irreparable harm,” Janice Schneider, an attorney representing Revolution Wind LLC, said during the Monday hearing. Developers estimate they have lost $1.44 million a day since work was forced to stop three weeks ago.
It’s the second time in less than a year the project was forced to stop. An initial stop work order suspended construction in mid-August, but a Lamberth order in September unpaused it.
The Interior Department then froze the project again in December, based on an analysis that found “the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference,” posing a national security risk.
Peter Torstensen, an attorney for the Trump administration, said the national security issues should outweigh any monetary harms that Revolution Wind would incur. However, the classified federal analysis was not shared publicly nor with experts for the developers, despite multiple requests. It was submitted privately to Lamberth for review.
Questioning motive
Schneider noted Donald Trump’s comment to oil executives last week, following U.S. military operations in Venezuela, that no new wind turbines would be built in the U.S.
“We do think that this court should be skeptical of the government’s motive,” Schneider said of Trump’s recent comments. “It is clear the administration’s goal is to not let any windmills be built.”
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, offered his take on the relationship between the Trump administration and the fossil fuel industry in a statement Monday night.
“Stopping clean energy raises customers’ costs, and the money goes to fossil fuel power plants —- to Trump’s big donors,” Whitehouse said. “The good news for Rhode Islanders working on these projects is that President Donald ‘Stop Work’ Trump keeps striking out as he tries to prevent cheap energy from getting onto our grid.”
During the court hearing, Torstensen said the concerns from the administration stemmed from national security, and that the stop-work order was issued to provide a time to “have that discussion.”
Lamberth said he didn’t understand that reasoning.
“You want to stop everything in place…while you figure out what to do?” Lamberth asked Torstensen.
Torstensen answered that the pause was to review the national security concerns.
Project at stake
Schneider added that if a preliminary injunction was not granted Monday, then Revolution Wind would be at risk of breaching its power purchase contract with Rhode Island Energy, the state’s primary utility company.
Schneider said the company has a short lease on specialty vessels needed to transport the towering seven turbines out to sea. The specific boat under contract, the Wind Scylla, is only available until Feb. 22, and needs 41 days to transport the remaining seven turbines, she said.
Even after the skyscraper-sized foundations are anchored to the foundations in the seafloor, developers still need “months and months and months and months” of testing in limited capacity to meet the January 2027 deadline to supply power to Rhode Island, Schneider said.
That deadline is also critical to New England residents who rely on an infusion of wind-powered electricity to boost supply and lower cost for energy, especially in winter months when fuel is limited and expensive, Sarah Rice, Rhode Island assistant attorney general, said during Monday’s hearing.
“We’re talking about millions of dollars in increased electricity costs in the region,” Rice said, adding that residents would see a $31 million increase in electricity costs for every 90 days the project is delayed.
U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner also emphasized the affordability factor in a statement Monday.
“It is cold out and people are struggling with high energy bills,” Magaziner said. “The Trump Administration must let Revolution Wind go live so Rhode Islanders can benefit from more clean, affordable energy.”
Rhode Island and Connecticut’s state decarbonization mandates also rely on the 704 megawatts of nameplate capacity the project will generate at full operations — enough to power 350,000 homes across both states.
“It’s about people being able to turn on their heat in the winter,” Rice said.
Then, there are the workers — 2,000 mostly union contractors employed during project construction, with more than 3,000 permanent positions as Rhode Island cements its footing in the nascent industry, according to state analysis. Roughly 200 have been on standby since December.
In Lamberth’s order from the bench granting the preliminary injunction, he acknowledged that tight window, and found that Revolution Wind is likely to face irreparable harm.
“If Revolution Wind cannot meet certain benchmarks, the whole project could collapse,” he said.
Lamberth’s Monday order may offer a preview of upcoming court hearings for two of the other four projects under suspension at present. On Wednesday, Judge Carl John Nichols, also of the D.C. federal court, will hear arguments in Empire Wind’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over its New York offshore wind project. Developers of the Dominion Virginia Coastal Offshore Wind project will make their case in a Virginia federal court hearing Friday.
Orsted has also filed a complaint seeking a preliminary injunction against federal regulators for the suspension on Sunrise Wind in New York; a hearing has not been scheduled as of Monday afternoon.
Developers of Vineyard Wind, the fifth project subject to the suspension, have not taken legal action yet.
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