By Hank Russell
A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down offshore wind projects — including Empire Wind off Long Island — was unlawful. The judge ruled in favor of 16 state attorneys general and the attorney general of Washington, D.C., who sued to overturn the president’s Wind Directive.
The Wind Directive, according to the lawsuit, “orders the heads of relevant federal agencies to relinquish their congressionally-imposed responsibilities” to “‘… issue new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans for onshore or offshore-wind projects pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal wind leasing and permitting practices.’”
“The Wind Directive has stopped most wind-energy development in its tracks, despite the fact that wind energy is a homegrown source of reliable, affordable energy that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, creates billions of dollars in economic activity and tax payments, and supplies more than 10% of the country’s electricity,” the lawsuit stated.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, Equinor, a Norwegian company, recently announced back in April that all activity on the Empire Wind 1 Project — located off the coast of the City of Long Beach — will be suspended pending a review from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The announcement was made after Trump signed the executive order on January 20. One month later, LILP reported, Trump lifted the stop-work order.
On May 5, New York Attorney General Letitia James joined 17 other attorneys general in a lawsuit to end what they call the Trump administration’s arbitrary and indefinite halt on new wind energy development across the country, LILP reported.
On December 8, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris ruled against Trump, writing in her decision that the executive order “constitutes a change of course from decades of agencies issuing (or denying) permits related to wind energy projects.”
“As New Yorkers face rising energy costs, we need more energy sources, not fewer,” James said. “Wind energy is good for our environment, our economy, and our communities. I am grateful the court stepped in to block the administration’s reckless and unlawful crusade against clean energy.”
Governor Kathy Hochul called the decision “a major victory for our state and the entire region,” adding, “The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to block these projects, risking blackouts and thousands of good-paying jobs. I’ll always fight like hell to protect New Yorkers — today’s decision shows that fight matters.”
LILP reached out to Equinor and the Trump administration and is waiting to hear back.