The Trump administration told a federal court it intends to reconsider a key US government approval that authorized the construction of Equinor ASA’s planned second phase of an offshore wind project near New York and New Jersey.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management will review the approved construction and operations plan for the Empire Wind 2 project, the US said in a Tuesday filing with a Washington-based federal district court considering a legal challenge to the project by area residents and businesses. Equinor didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The move is the latest effort by President Donald Trump to stop the offshore wind industry, which he has called a “scam.” His administration has stopped new leasing and permitting, is moving to revoke existing permits and has even halted projects under construction.
The government said its plan is consistent with a broad offshore wind review Trump ordered just hours after his January inauguration. It’s also aligned with an ongoing Interior Department assessment of the extent to which past offshore wind project approvals comply with a decades-old federal law that requires energy projects on coastal federal waters balance a dozen different needs, including protecting the environment and national security, as well as preventing interference with use of the high seas.
An Equinor executive said on Bloomberg TV in July that the Norwegian company is unlikely to pursue the Empire Wind 2 project, which hasn’t started construction, because of regulatory changes in the US.
In its filing, the US didn’t describe plans to similarly review key permits for the nearly built Empire Wind 1 venture, after lifting a stop-work order that briefly halted construction earlier this year.
— With assistance from Will Mathis