The Trump administration has given the go-ahead for construction to resume on Equinor’s 810MW Empire Wind 1 project off the coast of New York.
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The project faced a month-long stop-work order after the Trump administration began “aggressively” targeting offshore and onshore wind projects across the US.
Trump signed an executive order temporarily halting offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits, and loans for onshore and offshore wind projects.
Equinor was ordered to stop construction on the Empire Wind 1 project, and said it would be forced to terminate the already 30% complete project unless the administration backed down.
Equinor welcomed news of the ban being lifted, and said construction work would resume on the project.
Onshore wind is the country’s largest source of renewable energy, totalling approximately 10% of electricity generation.
Several US states are relying on offshore wind to meet their renewables targets, including Massachusetts and California, with the latter looking to develop 25GW of offshore wind energy by 2045.
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According to AP Climate Watch, attorneys general from 17 states and Washington DC are asking a federal judge to declare Trump’s executive order on wind unlawful and stop federal agencies from implementing it.
