{"id":98478,"date":"2026-01-13T11:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98478\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:23:08","slug":"new-york-attorney-general-sues-trump-administration-over-cancelled-wind-schemes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98478\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Attorney General sues Trump administration over cancelled wind schemes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"New York Attorney General Letitia James at a parade celebrating women\u2019s basketball team New York Liberty winning the WNBA World Championship in 2024 (Anthony Quintano\/CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\nNew York Attorney General Letitia James yesterday filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration\u2019s stop-work orders on two major offshore wind projects set to power more than a million New York homes.\n<\/p>\n

One of them \u2013 Empire Wind 1, developed by Norway\u2019s Equinor \u2013 is 60% complete. By 2027, its 54 turbines were expected to generate 810MW to power 500,000 homes. The project includes an $861m rehabilitation of the 73-acre South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.<\/p>\n

The other is 924MW Sunrise Wind, which Denmark\u2019s \u00d8rsted has been building since it got final approval in June 2024. It\u2019s 45% complete, with 44 of 84 monopile turbine foundations installed. It had been expected to power 600,000 homes starting in 2027.<\/p>\n

On 22 December the US Department of the Interior halted work on all five big wind schemes under construction off the eastern US coast on undisclosed grounds of national security.<\/p>\n

As well as the Empire and Sunrise schemes, \u00d8rsted\u2019s Revolution Wind, Dominion Energy\u2019s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and Vineyard Wind 1, a joint venture of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid, were ordered to stop work.<\/p>\n

All schemes are fully permitted and, combined, represent decades of planning and billions of dollars already invested.<\/p>\n

\u2018Arbitrary and unwarranted\u2019<\/p>\n

James, who secured a fraud conviction against Donald Trump in 2024, called the orders \u201carbitrary and unwarranted\u201d because both projects went through years of national security and safety reviews.<\/p>\n

She asked the court to block the stop-work orders, saying they were unlawful and could threaten New York\u2019s economy and energy grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers deserve clean, reliable energy, good-paying jobs, and a government that follows the law,\u201d she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese projects were carefully reviewed and already under construction when the federal government pulled the plug without explanation. This reckless decision puts workers, families, and our climate goals at risk, and my office is taking action to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney general said halting construction risks delaying or permanently derailing the projects, jeopardizing contracts, local tax revenue, workforce training programs, and long-term economic development tied to New York\u2019s clean energy transition.<\/p>\n

\u2018Incomprehensible obsession\u2019<\/p>\n

New York Governor Kathy Hochul weighed in, saying: \u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s incomprehensible obsession with shutting down these fully permitted projects lacks legal justification, hurts his stated goal of U.S. energy independence, and will cost New York thousands of jobs and needed power to keep the lights on and attract economic development opportunities. These unlawful actions cannot stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 2 January, Equinor\u2019s Empire Offshore Wind LLC filed a civil suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, saying it would also seek a preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n

On 6 January, \u00d8rsted\u2019s Sunrise Wind LLC filed a complaint<\/a> in the same court challenging the Interior Department\u2019s lease suspension order. Its complaint was to be followed by a motion for a preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n

Subscribe here<\/a> to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Attorney General Letitia James at a parade celebrating women\u2019s basketball team New York Liberty winning the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[45440,2709,9,11,10,1069,820,45441],"class_list":{"0":"post-98478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-cancel","9":"tag-justice","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-trump","14":"tag-usa","15":"tag-wind-farm"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}