The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently granted Empire Offshore Wind LLC a preliminary injunction that allows construction activities to resume on the Outer Continental Shelf for the Empire Wind project.
The underlying lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s December 22, 2025 suspension order will continue to proceed.
“Empire Wind will now focus on safely restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period. In addition, the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations," it said.
Empire Wind is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) “to deliver a critical new, near-term source of electricity for New York and bolster grid reliability at a time of rapidly growing demand. Once completed, the project would provide enough power to electrify approximately 500,000 homes in New York,” Empire Wind said.
The news follows the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 12 granting a preliminary injunction sought by Revolution Wind regarding the December 22, 2025, suspension order issued by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
Revolution Wind is a 50/50 joint venture between Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables and Ørsted.
Revolution Wind will supply 704 MW of offshore wind energy to Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The Department of the Interior in December announced that it was pausing -- effective immediately -- the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the United States "due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports."
Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 16 granted Dominion Energy’s request for a preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project while Dominion Energy’s lawsuit challenging the agency’s action proceeds.
"Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks. While our legal challenge proceeds, we will continue seeking a durable resolution of this matter through cooperation with the federal government," the company said.
CVOW will consist of 176 offshore wind energy turbines generating a total of 2.6 gigawatts.
