Norwegian energy company Equinor and Danish company Orsted filed civil suits late Tuesday in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s Dec. 22 order suspending leases on five East Coast offshore wind projects for at least 90 days. Connecticut and Rhode Island filed a separate request Monday seeking a preliminary injunction for a third project. Dominion Energy Virginia, which had been the first to sue, called the order “arbitrary and capricious” and unconstitutional.
The wave of legal challenges tests whether the administration can freeze billions of dollars in previously permitted offshore wind development without disclosing the national security concerns it cited. Equinor warned its Empire Wind project faces likely termination within days if construction cannot resume.
Empire Wind faces Jan. 16 deadline
Equinor’s Empire Wind LLC asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for expedited consideration. The company said in its filing that the project faces “likely termination” if construction cannot resume by Jan. 16, describing the order as disrupting a tightly choreographed construction schedule dependent on vessels with constrained availability and posing an existential threat to project financing.
Empire Wind is a major offshore wind farm planned for New York. Equinor finalized the federal lease for the project in March 2017, during Trump’s first term. The final federal approval came in February 2024.
Orsted disputes national security claim
Orsted asked a judge to vacate and set aside the order covering its Sunrise Wind project, also in New York. The company said it has spent billions of dollars on the project in reliance on validly issued federal permits. Its filing stated that its team met weekly with the Coast Guard throughout 2025, with representatives from other agencies frequently attending, and that no one raised national security concerns during those meetings.
Orsted is also building Revolution Wind with joint venture partner Skyborn Renewables. The two companies filed a separate complaint over the order on behalf of that venture.
States warn of cost to households
Connecticut and Rhode Island filed their joint request Monday seeking a preliminary injunction to allow work on Revolution Wind to continue.
“Every day this project is stalled costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated energy bills when families are in dire need of relief,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “Revolution Wind was vetted and approved, and the Trump administration has yet to disclose a shred of evidence to counter that thorough and careful process.”
Administration defends the pause
Interior Department spokesperson Matt Middleton said Wednesday that President Trump has directed the agency to manage public lands and waters for multiple uses, including energy development, conservation and national defense. Middleton described the pause on large-scale offshore wind construction as “a decisive step to protect America’s security, prevent conflicts with military readiness and maritime operations and ensure responsible stewardship of our oceans.”
“We will not sacrifice national security or economic stability for projects that make no sense for America’s future,” Middleton said.
Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, joint owners of the Vineyard Wind project in Massachusetts — the fifth project covered by the order — had not publicly indicated as of Wednesday whether they planned to challenge the freeze.
A pattern of halts and restarts
The Dec. 22 freeze followed earlier disruptions to the same projects. In April, the administration stopped construction on Empire Wind, accusing the Biden administration of rushing the permits, then allowed work to resume a month later.
Work on Revolution Wind was paused on Aug. 22 for what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said were national security concerns. A federal judge ordered the project to resume a month later, citing irreparable harm to the developers and a demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.