A federal judge on Monday struck down the Interior Department’s order to halt work on a multi-billion-dollar wind farm off the coast of New York, the fifth time the courts ruled against the administration’s efforts to throttle the country’s offshore wind industry. The administration is now 0-5 in its attempt to stop wind farms under construction along the East Coast.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction that would allow the developer of the project, known as Sunrise Wind, to restart construction while the broader legal battle unfolds.
In December, the Interior Department ordered all work to halt on Sunrise Wind and four other wind farms off the East Coast. To justify the sweeping move, officials cited a classified report by the Defense Department that found that the projects threatened national security.
But Judge Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, said he was unpersuaded by the government’s claims about national security after reviewing the classified report under seal. He said the actions of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had caused “irreparable harm” to the developer of Sunrise Wind.
“Purportedly new classified information does not constitute a sufficient explanation for the bureau’s decision to entirely stop work on the Sunrise Wind project,” Judge Lamberth said while ruling from the bench after a two-hour court hearing.
Upon learning of the ruling, many energy executives had a feeling of déjà vu. It was the fifth time in the past three weeks that a federal judge had rebuked the Trump administration’s crusade against the five wind farms under construction in federal waters along the East Coast.
The previous four rulings allowed work to continue on Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, Empire Wind off New York, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia and Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts. Judge Lamberth also presided over the case brought by Revolution Wind.
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Sunrise Wind is in federal waters about 30 miles east of Montauk Point, N.Y. The project is already 45 percent complete, with 44 out of 84 turbine foundations installed in the ocean floor. Once fully operational, it is expected to generate enough renewable energy to power nearly 600,000 homes in New York.
Orsted, the Danish energy giant that is building Sunrise Wind, wrote in court filings that it was losing $2.5 million each day that the project was paused. The company said it had already spent or committed to investing $7 billion in the project so far.
Representatives for Orsted and the Interior Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
President Trump has disparaged offshore wind power since 2012, when he failed to stop a wind farm visible from one of his golf courses in Scotland. He has often called the projects ugly and expensive, and he has claimed without evidence that they do not work and that they are “driving whales crazy.”
During the court hearing on Monday, Janice Schneider, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins, argued on behalf of Sunrise Wind that the government was using concerns about national security as a pretext to target projects that the president dislikes. Ms. Schneider cited Mr. Trump’s comments last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he described wind farms as “losers.”
John Kenneth Adams, the chief of staff and senior counsel in the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, argued on behalf of the Trump administration that there was “nothing inconsistent” about the national security claims.
“All these things can be true: Wind farms can be inefficient, wind farms can increase consumer prices, wind farms can cause damage to our natural resources, and wind farms can pose national security risks,” Mr. Adams said.
It is unclear whether the Justice Department will appeal Monday’s ruling and the four related decisions.
Maxine Joselow covers climate change and the environment for The Times from Washington.
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