Judge Rules Orsted Can Resume Work on Rhode Island Offshore Wind Project

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Jan. 12 allowing Danish energy company Orsted to resume construction work on the offshore wind project that had been halted by the Trump administration.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington said that Revolution Wind had demonstrated that it would likely suffer “irreparable harm” without injunctive relief and that granting the motion was in the public interest.

The ruling follows a lawsuit by Revolution Wind, an Orsted joint venture, which sought to challenge the Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) Dec. 22 stop-work order that halted construction activity at five major offshore wind projects—including Revolution Wind—for 90 days to allow officials to assess potential national security risks posed by the projects.

DOI first issued a stop-work order to halt construction activity at Revolution Wind in August 2025, citing the need to address “concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas.”

That order was temporarily blocked by a judge. The DOI later issued another stop-work order in December for Revolution Wind and four other offshore wind projects after the government found that the rotating turbine blades and highly reflective towers used in large-scale offshore wind farms could interfere with military radar systems.

Orsted’s lawsuit argued that the suspension was “arbitrary and capricious,” violated federal offshore leasing law, and unconstitutionally deprived developers of property rights without due process.

The company stated that the $5 billion project is nearly complete and has already received more than 20 federal and state approvals following years of environmental and national security reviews.

Cancellation of the project, Orsted argued, threatens hundreds of operations and maintenance jobs and increases risks to New England grid reliability.

Following the ruling, Orsted said that Revolution Wind will resume construction “as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” while its lawsuit challenging the DOI’s directive progresses.

“Revolution Wind will determine how best it may be possible to work with the US Administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution,” the company said in a statement.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha welcomed the ruling.

“Rhode Island and Connecticut rely on this project for energy pricing stability and affordability, electric grid reliability, environmental health, good-paying union jobs, and more,” Neronha said in a statement.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOI for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Revolution Wind project aimed to produce reliable electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut and is expected to begin commercial operations in October 2026, according to the company’s Jan. 2 filing.

The project had secured all required permits and approvals under the Biden administration and was 87 percent complete when the DOI issued the stop-work order in December, it stated.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.