The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 15 granted a preliminary injunction allowing construction on New York’s Empire Wind project to proceed after it had been shut down by the Trump administration. Equinor, the Norwegian company developing Empire Wind through Empire Offshore Wind LLC won the preliminary injunction in an underlying lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Dec. 22, 2025, order that suspended the construction.
President Trump has been an outspoken opponent of wind power to generate electricity. He tried but failed to block construction of an offshore wind farm near one of his golf courses in Scotland. It was reported he felt the offshore turbines ruined the view from the golf course. Trump has since claimed without evidence that the noise from wind turbines causes cancer, that the turbines will last only eight years before rusting away, and that the wind farms drive whales ‘crazy.’
With the temporary injunction issued by Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in place, Empire Wind says it will now focus on restarting construction activities that were halted during the suspension period. In addition its says the project will continue to engage with the U.S. government to ensure the safe, secure and responsible execution of its operations.
In reaction to the judge issuing the order against the Trump administration, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Jan. 15, “I’m sick and tired of having to go to court time and time and time again to stop these decisions. They’re designed to do nothing other than hurt workers, hurt our states, hurt our economy and hurt our energy future.”
Hochul noted that the Sunrise Wind project off the coast of Long Island and developed by Orsted, which is intended to supply 600,000 homes with electricity, also was shut down.
“They were stopped under the bogus pretense of national security,” Hochul said. “When I heard this, I said one thing, ‘I’m the Governor of New York. If there is a national security threat off the coast of New York, you need to tell me what it is — I want a briefing right now.’ Low and behold, they had no answer. They had fake claims about radar. Radar can be addressed and handled as it has happened on many other projects in the past. I’m proud to say that the company has been successful in court. We’re going to continue doing what we have to do every single step of the way, but for now the wind turbines will be turning on.”
Empire Wind is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to deliver a new 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 Offshore Wind LLC filed a civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 2 challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s order directing a suspension to the Empire Wind project.
Empire says it has coordinated closely with numerous federal officials on national security reviews since it executed its lease for the project in 2017. In addition, Empire notes that it meets regularly with officials charged with oversight of security issues for the project, including weekly meetings with the U.S. Coast Guard and other marine first responders.
Empire Wind is more than 60% complete and Equinor has invested over $4 billion so far. The project’s construction phase alone has put nearly 4,000 people to work, both within the lease area and through the revitalization of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.
The Department of Interior sent shudown notices to five offshore wind projects.
