A US court cleared an offshore wind project in Virginia to resume construction work Friday, marking the latest legal blowback to a Trump administration order.
US Judge Jamar Walker granted Dominion Energy’s request to block a December 22 order from the Department of Interior that froze work on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and four other offshore wind projects under development.
Walker’s decision, which was rendered from the bench and not accompanied by a written analysis, comes on the heels of similar judgments earlier this week that will restart Equinor’s Empire Wind Project in New York and Orsted’s Revolution Wind project in Rhode Island.
As with the other cases, the Virginia ruling green lights construction but does not render a judgment on an underlying challenge to the Trump administration action.
Backers of CVOW have already spent $8.9 billion of the total projected $11.2 billion for the project, which Dominion says will provide enough energy to power around 600,000 homes.
‘Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks,’ Dominion said Friday.
The interior department on December 22 said it had paused leases for the five offshore wind projects under construction, citing ‘national security.’
Interior’s press release pointed to ‘radar interference’ due to ‘the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers.’
But the Department of Energy website describes radar interference as a risk manageable through ‘thoughtful’ sighting and planning’ that can ‘allow wind power projects to coexist effectively with radar missions.’
Dominion’s complaint includes scathing criticism of the Trump administration order, calling the action ‘arbitrary and capricious’ in light of prior rulings by Interior and other agencies.
‘Our nation is governed by laws and a stable legal and regulatory environment is essential,’ the complaint said.
‘Sudden and baseless withdrawal of regulatory approvals by government officials cannot be reconciled with the predictability needed to support the exceptionally large capital investments required for large-scale energy development projects.’
Trump has long complained that windmills ruin views and are expensive. During a trip last summer to one of his UK golf courses, the president urged Britain to stop subsidising the ‘ugly monsters.’
Interior secretary Doug Burgum said Friday that renewable sources like wind ‘are not reliable sources of power in the face of increasing power demand,’ in a CNBC interview in which he was not asked about the court rulings.
Burgum described renewable energy as the brainchild of ‘climate extremists’ and ‘driven by the ideology’ of officials in the Biden administration.
