A federal judge has lifted President Trump’s stop-work order on a massive offshore wind project on Long Island’s South Shore — allowing construction to restart immediately.
The state-backed Empire Wind project, a $6 billion offshore wind development located roughly 14 miles off the coast of Jones Beach, can fully resume construction after being illegally halted by the Trump administration in December, judge Carl Nichols ruled Thursday.
The Trump administration cited vague national security concerns when it brought the project to a screeching halt in December.
The developer Equinor, a Norwegian energy company hired by Albany to install the wind farm along the region’s coast, said the reason behind the stop-work order was never fully explained to them — sparking a lawsuit against the US Department of Interior.
“[The Empire Wind project was] stopped under the bogus pretense of national security,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
“The work was done, the platforms were built, thousands of workers from Long Island to New York City and beyond have been working through all kinds of weather to do something that is critically important for our energy future and has been contemplated as part of our grid — [and] the Trump administration shut it down.”
The project, which was more than 60% complete when it was suspended, was at risk of missing critical construction deadlines that could have sunk the entire project, according to court filings.
Thursday’s preliminary injunction allows Equinor to immediately restart offshore construction and continue work on the 810-megawatt wind farm, which is expected to begin delivering power to over 500,000 people across parts of New York City later this year.
Equinor has already invested roughly $4 billion into the project and plans to spend another $2 billion to complete it, court papers said.
“Empire Wind will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period. In addition, the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations,” David Schoetz, a spokesperson for Equinor, said in a statement.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who governs the region along the project’s coastline, did not respond to a request for comment — but has repeatedly outspoken against the project.
“The residents of Nassau County do not want offshore wind turbines,” Blakeman, who is running for governor, told a Long Island Association breakfast earlier this month.
Meanwhile, other state offshore wind projects such as Sunrise Wind along the shores in Suffolk County — which Republican County Executive Ed Romaine has repeatedly made clear he was in favor of — remain stalled under separate federal orders.
Sunrise Wind, which is slated to deliver nearly 1,000 megawatts of power to the Long Island grid by 2028, is still seeking court approval to resume work.
