‍What’s happening? Equinor and Orsted have launched legal action against a Trump administration order halting five major US offshore wind projects. The US Department of the Interior (DOI) cited national security concerns in its 22 December 2025 suspension, affecting developments such as Empire Wind, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. Equinor has invested over $4bn in Empire Wind, now more than 60% complete, while Orsted’s Revolution Wind – being developed in partnership with Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables – is 87% built. Dominion Energy, whose $11.3bn Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project faces $5m in daily losses, has failed in an early injunction bid. Developers warn that the pause risks delaying delivery, raising costs and damaging investor confidence. (Energy Voice)

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Why does this matter? President Donald Trump has long been a critic of wind power, claiming it is the most expensive form of electricity and that turbines are a blight on the landscape, whilst harming wildlife. Since he took office for a second term, Trump has made several attempts to block wind projects, including a pause on new leasing and permitting of offshore developments, ending subsidies and making it more difficult to claim tax credits. The administration also issued stop-work orders against Orsted and Equinor earlier in 2025, although these were later lifted.

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Risk investigation – In this latest move, the Trump administration did not explicitly state what the national security risks are, stating that they had been identified by the Department of War in classified reports. The DOI said the pause would allow time to investigate how these risks could be mitigated. DOI Secretary Doug Burgum argued that the “action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.” The DOI also highlighted concerns that the movement of huge turbine blades and their highly reflective towers create radar interference which could “obscure legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects.”

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Substantial power – Jointly, the impacted projects are worth $25bn and, if completed, they would generate a combined 6 GW of electricity, with Orsted/Skyborn’s Revolution Wind contributing 704 MW, Orsted’s Sunrise Wind 942 MW, Equinor’s Empire Wind 2 GW and Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) 2.6 GW. The remaining project, Vineyard Wind 1 would deliver 800 MW and is already 50% operational. Its developer, Avangrid, has not yet filed a lawsuit and has not commented on the suspension.

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Vital additions – Orsted, Equinor and Dominion Energy have all warned that their projects are vital for improving grid reliability, meeting the growing energy needs of the US, including AI and data centres. They also state that they have addressed security concerns in coordination with the relevant regulatory agencies as part of the permitting process. Orsted emphasised that its Revolution Wind project was set to start generating power in January and would supply 350,000 households with affordable energy in 2026 under 20-year power purchase agreements with utilities in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Equinor said that, once complete, its Empire Wind project would generate enough power for 500,000 New York homes in the near-term. Dominion Energy added that the CVOW project was also critical for war-fighting installations and warship manufacturing.

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The fallout – In addition to colossal financial losses, a permanent stop to these projects and others similar would ultimately lead to higher energy costs for consumers, greater reliance on fossil fuels and mass redundancies. The suspensions also put offtake contracts at risk. For example, the finalisation of contracts for Ocean Winds’ 1.2 GW SouthCoast Wind and Avangrid’s 791 MW New England Wind projects in Massachusetts are now postponed until summer, having originally been set for December 2025. With Trump's continued attempts to thwart the wind industry, this could be pushed back even further.