The builders of a Virginia offshore wind undertaking are asking a federal decide to dam a Trump administration order that halted construction of their undertaking, along with four others, over nationwide safety considerations.
Dominion Vitality Virginia stated in its lawsuit filed late Tuesday that the federal government’s order is “arbitrary and capricious” and unconstitutional. The Richmond-based firm is creating Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, a undertaking it says is crucial to fulfill dramatically rising power wants driven by dozens of new data centers.
The Inside Division didn’t element the safety considerations in blocking the 5 initiatives on Monday. In a letter to undertaking builders, Inside’s Bureau of Ocean Vitality Administration set a 90-day interval — and probably longer — “to find out whether or not the nationwide safety threats posed by this undertaking may be adequately mitigated.”
The opposite initiatives are the Winery Wind undertaking underneath building in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut and two initiatives in New York: Dawn Wind and Empire Wind. Democratic governors in these states have vowed to combat the order, the newest motion by the Trump administration to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources.
Dominion’s undertaking has been underneath building since early 2024 and was scheduled to come back on-line early subsequent 12 months, offering sufficient power to energy about 660,000 houses. The corporate stated the delay was costing it greater than $5 million a day in losses solely for the ships utilized in round the clock building, and that prospects or the corporate would ultimately bear the fee.
Dominion known as this week’s order “the newest in a sequence of irrational company actions attacking offshore wind after which doubling down when these actions are found unlawful.”
The Bureau of Ocean Vitality Administration didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail in search of remark.
U.S. District Decide Jamar Walker set a listening to for two p.m. Monday on Dominion’s request for a short lived restraining order.
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