A U.S. judge on Monday will consider a request from Danish energy company Orsted to block the Trump administration's halt on its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York.
The preliminary injunction request is the fifth brought by an offshore wind developer since the Interior Department's December 22 pause on five offshore wind leases in federal waters. The agency stopped work on the multi-billion-dollar facilities due to national security concerns around radar interference.
Orsted has spent or committed more than $7 billion to date to build Sunrise Wind, the company said in a court filing. If the stop-work order is not lifted by February 6, the project risks losing access to a specialized vessel needed to complete installation of an offshore cable, Orsted added.
"Such delay would in turn delay revenue generation, compromise the Project's financial viability, and create a substantial risk of its cancellation," the company said in a court filing.
The Interior Department has argued that the suspension is justified by new, classified information about risks to national security from the operation of offshore wind farms.
Four projects, including Orsted's Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island, have won court orders to resume construction while their underlying lawsuits proceed.
The Sunrise Wind hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington will be before Judge Royce Lamberth, who granted the injunction for Revolution Wind in January.
Offshore wind developers have faced repeated disruptions under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he finds wind turbines ugly, expensive and inefficient.
Sunrise Wind is located 30 miles east of Long Island, New York and is about 45% complete, according to Orsted. Once built, the project will produce enough power for nearly 600,000 homes. It is expected to start operating as soon as October.
(Reuters)
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