New York, United States | AFP
A US federal judge cleared the way Monday for an offshore wind energy project to resume work in New England, nullifying a Trump administration order pausing the project.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth endorsed Revolution Wind’s request to invalidate the US Interior Department’s move to suspend the project off the coast of Rhode Island.
Lamberth’s order will allow Revolution Wind “to restart impacted activities immediately,” according to a statement on the venture’s website.
“The project will resume construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority, and to deliver affordable, reliable power to the Northeast,” the statement continued.
Orsted has a 50-percent stake in the Revolution Wind project alongside a renewables infrastructure developer that is part of the BlackRock investment group.
The US Interior Department on December 22 said it had paused leases for Revolution Wind and four other offshore wind projects under construction, citing unspecified national security risks and casting new doubt over the future of an industry detested Trump and top appointees.
In a one-page order, Lamberth wrote that Revolution Wind was likely to succeed in underlying litigation, faced “irreparable harm” without an injunction and the venture’s request was “in the public interest.”
The park of 65 turbines off the coast of Rhode Island is 87-percent complete and had been set to go online this year to provide power for more than 350,000 homes, according to Orsted.
In its January 2 request for a preliminary injunction, the project said it had received more than 20 approvals from the Interior Department and other federal and state agencies and spent or committed more than $5 billion on the project.
Trump has long complained that wind turbines ruin views and are expensive.
In addition to his order attempting to ban new wind farm permits, Trump’s administration has also moved to block all federal loans for wind energy.
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