The Interior Department wants to reevaluate a key approval for Revolution Wind, a $6.2 billion project. Revolution Wind is already producing power off the coasts of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The wind farm began generating electricity in March. Its developer Ørsted installed the last of 65 turbines in September. At full operation, Revolution Wind will generate enough clean electricity to power over 350,000 homes.
On Friday, Interior asked a federal court for permission to remand the agency's 2023 approval of a construction and operations plan for the 704-megawatt wind farm. The obvious reading is that this is just paperwork. My read is that the permit is the whole game.
Experts say the move doesn't immediately affect the project's activities. Hillary Bright, executive director of the offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward, said the filing "injects uncertainty into a nearly completed offshore wind project that electricity planners and consumers in the Northeast are counting on."
The filing stems from an ongoing lawsuit by the anti-wind group Green Oceans. Green Oceans claims the federal government shortcut regulatory procedures and violated environmental protection laws.
The judge overseeing the request is Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Lamberth previously sided with offshore wind developers that were forced to pause construction last year under the Trump administration's stop-work orders.
Pasha Feinberg, an offshore wind strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Revolution Wind is helping to keep electricity bills in check for residents of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Department of the Interior said it is complying with a briefing schedule, not announcing a policy change.
I read this as an early sign that even operating clean energy projects are not safe from political reversal. The administration has previously halted construction on offshore wind farms and canceled leases for future projects.