Equinor’s Empire Wind wins preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume

The Trump Administration has met with another legal set back in its efforts to shut down U.S. offshore wind development. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today granted Equinor’s Empire Offshore Wind LLC (Empire) 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.

Equinor says that 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.

In its reporting, Reuters notes that the ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is the second legal setback for Trump’s offshore wind policy this week, after a [different] judge in the same court on Monday ruled Danish energy company Ørsted could restart work on a project off the coast of Rhode Island.

The Oceantic Network says that, despite the government’s argument that new national security concerns from a recent classified study prompted the action, udge Nichols granted the injunction because of the lack of notice given to the project before the order was issued and the successful demonstration of irreparable harm to the project. Together, these outweighed the government’s claim of the potential risk to public safety interests during construction. Additionally, the judge noted the administration failed to respond to most of Empire Wind’s claims, nor did they contest that the construction pause was an arbitrary and capricious action.

“Oceantic welcomes today’s ruling that allows Empire Wind to once again advance toward delivering reliable, affordable power to 500,000 homes and supporting good-paying jobs to communities across New York,” said Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock. “Empire Wind is critical to securing New York’s electric grid, stabilizing rising energy costs for local communities, creating jobs, and achieving energy independence, underscoring the importance of building out America’s energy infrastructure to meet rising electricity demand.”

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.

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