Danish renewable energy company Orsted has taken court action against the Trump Administration to overturn a stop-work order by the United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for Europe’s largest wind power company to halt construction of its US$1.5 billion (A$2.3 billion) Revolution Wind Project off of Rhode Island.
Once finished, the 65-strong wind turbine project – which is 80% completed – will be capable of powering more than 350,000 homes.
Orsted has asked the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the stop work order, which came into effect on 22 August, as arbitrary, capricious, unlawful and “issued in bad faith”.
Orsted, which together with partner Skyborn Renewables, has already invested $5 billion in Revolution Wind, may end up facing a double-digit billion-dollar write-down and $1 billion in breakaway costs from exiting contracts if the project never supplies electricity to the U.S.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has justified the order on national security grounds and concerns that Revolution Wind will interfere with other uses of U.S. territorial waters.
However, this decision flies in the face of numerous federal agencies uniformly concluding that the project is “environmentally sound, safe and consistent with federal law.
According to Orsted’s lawsuit, Revolution Wind has undergone extensive environmental and safety reviews over nearly a decade that cost more than $100 million.
Orsted has been quick to remind the court of President Trump’s long-standing hostility towards offshore wind.
It’s understood that Trump’s disdain for offshore wind farms dates back at least 14 years to a dispute over North Sea wind turbines that were visible from one of his golf courses in Scotland.
While completely refuted by experts, Trump claimed that wind farms should not be allowed because they generate “the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy” and also “kill the birds”.
During his first day in office in January, Trump suspended new offshore wind power leases and referred to wind and solar power as “the scam of the century”, vowing not to approve wind or “farmer destroying solar” projects.
Despite the renewable industry’s hopes that the White House will allow permitted projects such as Revolution Wind to proceed, Trump has doubled down with further attacks on the sector in recent weeks.
The president said his administration would not approve solar and wind projects two days before Revolution Wind was hit with the stop-work order.
Last Friday, the Trump administration cancelled $679 million in funding for a dozen infrastructure projects that support the offshore wind industry.
The Danish government owns a 50.1% share in Orsted, which last month saw its share price plunge to record lows after the stop-work order was enforced.
In April, the Interior Department ordered that work be stopped at Empire Wind, a $5 billion wind farm off the coast of New York that had received all necessary approvals from the Biden administration and was already being built.
After several weeks of negotiations with Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat of New York, the administration allowed Empire Wind to proceed.
However, White House officials suggested they had done so only after Hochul agreed to approve new gas pipelines in the state.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration remains at odds with Denmark after it rejected the president’s insistence that the U.S. take over Greenland.
