Trump Administration now defending Equinor's Empire Wind from new lawsuit
Trump Administration tried to halt planned wind farm off New York earlier this year, but is now having to fight its corner in face of new legal challenge
In an ironic turn of fortune, the Trump Administration is now being forced to defend Empire Wind from a recently filed lawsuit against the Equinor-backed offshore wind project.
The US Departments of Interior and Commerce issued a filing on 5 September opposing a motion by campaign group Save Long Beach Island aiming to halt the project currently under construction off New York.
Save Long Beach Island has brought the claim in the US District Court for the District of Columbia invoking the Marine Mammal Protection Act as it seeks an injunction against the 810MW project.
The group has previously filed similar challenges against US offshore wind projects, including Empire Wind, in other courts.
“Plaintiffs attempt to improperly influence this process by asking the court to grant ‘emergency’ relief on the basis of their layman opinions. Allowing such an outcome would harm the public interest by unnecessarily disrupting years of work and analysis that Federal Defendants conducted in connection with issuing the challenged Project approvals.”
The Trump Administration’s defence of Empire Wind comes after it issued a highly controversial stop work order aiming to thwart the same project earlier this year.
President Donald Trump was later persuaded to lift that order after intense lobbying by the state of New York, Equinor and its owner, the Norwegian state.
Trump has however recently stepped up attacks on other offshore wind farms currently being developed in US waters, aiming to revoke permits issued to several huge projects.
Most controversially, his administration has issued another stop work order against the 80% built Revolution Wind project being developed by Orsted and Skyborn Renewables.
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