An offshore wind project in New England has received court approval to restart construction after the Trump administration suspended leasing at five major projects days before Christmas, and Gov. Maura Healey said she was reaching out to wind “partner states” to get the industry back up and running.
An environmental advocate in Massachusetts said the ruling is “good news” for the Vineyard 1 project off Nantucket and other East Coast states still grappling with the Trump administration’s decision.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday blocking a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm planned to provide power to homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
“Without an injunction, Revolutionary Winds may suffer irreparable harm,” wrote District Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
“Revolution Wind will determine how best to work with the U.S. government to reach a swift and lasting solution,” said Ostead, one of the project’s developers. “Construction on the project will resume as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority and providing affordable, reliable power to the Northeast.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on December 22 that it would suspend leasing of all “large offshore wind power projects under construction” due to undisclosed “national security risks.”
Four Northeastern governors, including Gov. Maura Healey, wrote on Dec. 25 calling for the moratorium to be lifted immediately and for confidential briefings to understand potential national security risks.
Healey spokesperson Carissa Hand told the news service Tuesday that the governors had not received a response.
“It’s great to see Revolution Wind back at work and getting closer to providing power to our area. Vineyard Wind has been producing electricity for a year,” Healey said in a statement.
“These projects are critical to the reliability of our grid this winter, reducing costs for residents and businesses, and creating nearly 4,000 jobs in Massachusetts. We call on the Trump Administration to lift this questionable shutdown order and stay in close communication with Vineyard Wind and partner states so we can get back to work,” Healey continued.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said “the White House should not be shut down for the first or second time” due to “winds of revolution”.
“As construction resumes and suppliers gain certainty as they near completion, this state-backed project will help provide a more diverse energy supply to homes and businesses and reduce utility costs,” Lamont said. “We look forward to seeing the project move forward without further disruption and begin delivering power to more than 300,000 homes.”
Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Connecticut taxpayers “will lose about $500 million a year” if the project is blocked.
The agency previously estimated that the Revolution Wind project would reduce near-term wholesale energy and capacity market costs for Connecticut and all New England ratepayers by approximately $500 million by 2028.
Katie Siegel, senior director of offshore wind for the Massachusetts Environmental Alliance, called Monday’s court ruling “absolutely the right decision.”
“It really shows that the court understands how arbitrary and unpredictable the government’s intermittent appeals can be,” Siegel said.
Although Vineyard Wind has no lawsuit similar to Revolution Wind, Segal said the court’s ruling is still a positive sign.
The federal government told Vineyard Wind on Dec. 22 that it could continue to generate electricity despite the suspension, according to a letter from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Administrator Matthew Giacona.
“I believe this is good news for Massachusetts and for any cases that come forward because we now have precedent that the judge in this case opposed the Trump administration’s actions,” Siegel said. “I think what we can take from this is that the state of Massachusetts, New England, the entire East Coast and any other project that gets a full permit should feel like this is a victory because it shows that the court understands how harmful this kind of arbitrary action can be.”
Nick Krakow, a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, said federal interference with Revolutionary Winds is likely to continue in the future.
“While the administration continues to lose in court, it appears they are continuing to try to prevent Connecticut and Rhode Island residents from having access to affordable, clean electricity,” Krakow said, adding, “I’m not going to put anything past this administration.”
In the Dec. 22 order, Giacona suspended activities related to the Vineyard Wind 1 project that Massachusetts relies on for the next 90 days and said BOEM “will coordinate with you to determine whether the national security threat posed by the project can be adequately mitigated.”
Giacona wrote that BOEM and the U.S. Department of War will “work to make a determination on feasible mitigation measures within 90 days,” but BOEM “may further extend the 90-day moratorium based on the circumstances of these discussions.”
“In November 2025, the Department of War (DoW) completed an additional assessment of the national security impacts of offshore wind projects and provided new classified information to Interior Department senior leadership, including the rapid development of adversary-related technologies and the direct national security impacts of offshore wind projects,” Giacona wrote.
“These impacts are compounded by the location of these projects in sensitive locations on the East Coast and the potential to cause severe, immediate, and irreparable harm to our great nation,” he wrote.
During a U.S. House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor urged U.S. Department of Energy officials to explain how the administration’s attempts to cancel wind projects fit in with its commitment to reliability and affordability.
“The Department of Energy’s conclusions just don’t make any sense from a cost and reliability perspective,” the Florida Democrat said. “I think people across the country and businesses big and small are wondering why, why is the Department of Energy making it so expensive to live and canceling these projects. What is this?”
The official was Alex Fitzsimmons, the acting deputy undersecretary of the Department of Energy, who noted that offshore wind “is one of the most expensive energy sources in existence,” before Castor moved on to his next question.
Statehouse News Service reporter Colin A. Young contributed to this article.
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