Dominion Energy Virginia on Thursday asked a federal judge to stop a Trump administration order that paused construction of its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and four other offshore wind efforts, arguing the government acted improperly on national-security grounds.
In a lawsuit filed late Tuesday, Dominion said the Interior Department order is “arbitrary and capricious” and violates the Constitution, according to the complaint described by The Associated Press. The filing targets the pause announced by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The Interior Department did not publicly detail the specific security concerns that prompted the decision when it halted the projects on Monday. In a letter to developers, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management set a 90-day window—possibly longer—to determine whether “the national security threats posed by this project can be adequately mitigated.”
Dominion said its project is essential to meet rapidly growing energy demand driven by dozens of new data centers. The company also argued that the delay is already creating significant costs: it said the pause is costing it more than $5 million a day in losses tied solely to the ships used in round-the-clock construction, and that those expenses would ultimately be borne by customers or the company.
The lawsuit places Dominion’s Virginia project alongside four other offshore wind projects that were also halted under the same government action. Those projects include the Vineyard Wind development under construction in Massachusetts; Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut; and two New York projects, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind.
Dominion said the government’s action is part of a broader pattern of steps aimed at offshore wind, calling this week’s order “the latest in a series of irrational agency actions attacking offshore wind and then doubling down when those actions are found unlawful.” The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment by email.
U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. Monday on Dominion’s request for a temporary restraining order. Democratic governors in the states involved have said they plan to challenge the order.