By Hank Russell
A federal judge denied the Trump administration’s request to expand a stop-work order on a local wind project.
On March 11, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols ruled that the White House’s reasoning to expand the stop-work order — which is set to expire on March 22 — was without merit. “The government’s concern about potential future actions is too speculative, at this stage, for considerations of judicial economy to weigh in its favor,” Nichols wrote in his decision, according to Windpower Monthly.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, Equinor, a Norwegian company, announced in April 2025 that all activity on the Empire Wind 1 Project — located off the coast of the City of Long Beach — was being suspended pending a review from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). One month later, President Donald Trump lifted the stop-work order.
The Trump administration issued an executive order on January 20, 2025 to have the federal government halt all approvals on wind energy projects, as LILP reported, but a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration in December 2025, saying the executive order was unlawful.
Windpower Monthly also reported that there is still an ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration over the December 2025 stop-work order.
LILP reached out to Equinor. The company said it could not comment on pending litigation.
LILP also reached out to BOEM, but did not hear back as of press time.