Trump’s war on offshore wind faces another lawsuit
Dominion Energy, an offshore wind developer and utility that serves Virginia’s “data center alley,” filed suit this week against the Trump administration over its decision to suspend federal leases for large offshore wind projects. The move brings a sudden halt to five wind farms already under construction, including Dominion’s Coastal Virginia offshore wind project.
Dominion’s complaint filed Tuesday alleges that a stop-work order issued Monday by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is illegal, “arbitrary and capricious” and “violates constitutional principles that limit the actions of the executive branch.” Dominion wants a federal court to block BOEM from enforcing the stop-work order.
“Virginia needs all the electrons we can get as our electricity demand doubles.”
The suit also argues that “the sudden and baseless withdrawal of regulatory approvals by government officials” threatens developers’ ability to build large-scale infrastructure projects needed to meet the growing demand for energy in the United States.
“Virginia needs all the electrons we can get as our electricity demand doubles. These electrons will power the data centers that win the AI race,” Dominion said in a Dec. 22 press release. Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, according to the company.
The rush to build new data centers for AI – as well as growing demand for energy from manufacturing and the electrification of homes and vehicles – has put additional pressure on already strained power grids. Rising electricity costs have become a flash point in elections in Virginia and, consequently, in communities near data center projects across the United States. Delaying construction of the Coastal Virginia offshore wind farm increases project costs that customers ultimately pay, Dominion warns.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit, said the 90-day pause on offshore wind leases would allow the agency to address national security risks, which were apparently recently identified in classified reports. The U.S. Department of the Interior has also raised concerns about the turbines creating radar interference.
“I want to know what changed?” national security expert and former USS Cole commander Kirk Lippold told The Associated Press. “To my knowledge, nothing has changed in the threat environment that would cause us to stop any offshore wind program. »
The Trump administration previously halted construction on the Revolution Wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and the Empire Wind project off New York before a federal judge and BOEM lifted stop-work orders. These projects have now been put on hold again. President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum upon taking office in January removing areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing, which a federal judge struck down earlier this month for being “arbitrary and capricious.”
Dominion Energy says it has already obtained all necessary federal, state and local approvals for the Virginia coast offshore wind farm, which began work in 2024. The company has already spent $8.9 billion to date on the $11.2 billion project that was expected to begin producing electricity next year. Fully operational, the offshore wind farm is expected to have the capacity to produce 9.5 million megawatt hours per year of electricity without carbon pollution, or about as much as 660,000 homes could consume in the United States.
