Read the full article, Orsted, Equinor File Legal Challenges to Trump’s Offshore Wind Suspension, on The Wall Street Journal.

According to the article, Danish and Norwegian energy companies Orsted and Equinor are seeking injunctions against the Trump administration’s order halting construction of all U.S. offshore wind projects. 

The Revolution Wind Project

The $5 billion Revolution Wind project, a 50-50 venture between Orsted, the Danish renewable company, and Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables, filed a supplemental complaint recently challenging the order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. 

The project, which features turbines as large as skyscrapers, is off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The Empire Wind Project

Norwegian company Equinor said it is also filing a legal challenge over its Empire Wind project off New York in the same court.

In December 2025, The U.S. government paused the federal leases for five East Coast projects in the works “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.”

A Series of Moves

The stoppage was the latest in a series of moves the Trump administration has taken that have shaken the renewable energy industry. Trump has previously paused federal permits and leasing for wind projects both on land and at sea, which threw the industry into months of uncertainty. The president has also directly criticized what he has called “big ugly windmills.”

Orsted said that Revolution Wind will continue working with the administration toward a resolution, but it believes the suspension—filed by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management—violates the law.

Equinor said that it “has coordinated closely with numerous federal officials on national security reviews since it executed its lease for the project in 2017, including with the Department of War, and has complied with relevant national security related requirements.”

The Interior Department declined to comment on the companies’ legal action.

The government paused the Revolution Wind project in August, a decision that unsettled the industry because it was so close to being finished. The decision left workers waiting on the water, before a federal judge said in September 2025 they could resume construction.

The Revolution Wind Project, which aims to provide 704 megawatts of offshore-wind power to Connecticut and Rhode Island and create more than 2,000 direct jobs, secured all required federal and state permits in 2023, Orsted said.

The administration halted Empire Wind in the spring, but it was later allowed to proceed after a negotiation between the administration and Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Equinor said the Empire Wind project is 60 percent complete and that dozens of vessels had been working on it.

The project is expected to provide enough power to electrify about 500,000 homes in New York, Equinor said.

Several Other Projects Impacted

The administration’s pause on wind projects also halts Vineyard Wind 1 off Martha’s Vineyard, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and Sunrise Wind off the coast of New York.

There has been more pushback against the Trump administration’s move. Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, last week filed a legal challenge to the Trump order, arguing that the move is arbitrary and capricious.

Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has called the pause on wind unlawful and said she was “working closely with impacted states and developers to ensure the projects are completed.”

Discussion Questions

  1. What is an injunction?

    An injunction is a court order that requires a party to either do something or stop doing something. It is an equitable remedy used to prevent harm rather than to award money. 

    Generally, there are two types of injunctions: (1) the temporary injunction; and (2) the permanent injunction.

  2. As indicated in the article, in December 2025, The U.S. government paused the federal leases for five East Coast wind projects in the works “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.” Although those national security risks have not been disclosed, what might they be?

    In your author’s assessment, it is extremely difficult to speculate on what the national security risks might be. 

    Although aircraft risk might arguably be a concern, the airspace above the windmills is expansive. What is frustrating in this instance is that the “Department of War” (more officially known as the Department of Defense, as named by the U.S. Congress) will not reveal the risks, claiming they are classified.

  3. Assess the relevance of the following in terms of how this impasse should be resolved: (a) the wind projects were “in progress” before the Trump administration halted them; (b) the United States’ need for renewable energy sources; (c) the need to address global warming; (d) the need to preserve diplomatic relations with Scandinavian countries; and (e) President Trump’s assessment that the windmills are “ugly.”

    In your author’s opinion, factors (a) through (d) are extremely significant in terms of resolution of the impasse, while factor (e), one person’s aesthetic and subjective opinion, should be irrelevant.