Connecticut Attorney General William Tong filed for a preliminary injunction to block President Donald Trump’s stop order against offshore wind farm Revolution Wind, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
Tong filed the motion on Wednesday, Sept. 17, in conjunction with Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. Tong and Neronha had filed the initial lawsuit to overturn the stop work order on Sept. 4.
“In the face of an exhaustive record showing that the Project has been vetted through every layer of the federal and state regulatory process, and despite the States’ and others’ deep reliance interests, the federal government has arbitrarily reversed course and issued a Stop Work Order without explanation,” the motion read.
Construction on Revolution Wind began in 2023. It was slated to provide power to “more than 350,000 homes across Rhode Island and Connecticut,” according to Orsted, the company in charge of the project.
According to the motion, Revolution Wind “is now 80% complete and supposed to provide power to Rhode Island and Connecticut consumers next year.”
Tong said getting the project back on track would help Connecticut families and workers.
“Every day that Revolution Wind sits mothballed in the ocean is another day of unemployment, another day of unaffordable energy costs, and another day burning fossil fuels when clean, affordable, American-made energy is within our sights,” Tong said in the press release. “We’re asking the court to step in right now, to recognize the irreparable and immediate harm we are suffering, and to stop the Trump Administration’s impulsive and lawless overreach.”
The motion also references Connecticut’s and Rhode Island’s environmental goals that Revolution Wind was meant to help achieve.
“Both Rhode Island and Connecticut have time-sensitive statutory mandates for greenhouse gas reductions and renewable power that must be met,” the motion states. “Revolution Wind represents a sizable contribution to these state policy mandates and there is no currently available alternative that would allow each State to meet their policy objectives.”
The Trump Administration issued the stop work order on Aug. 22. It said work should halt “to allow time for it to address concerns that have arisen during the review that the Department is undertaking.”
“You may not resume activities until BOEM informs you that BOEM has completed its necessary review. If you fail to comply with the terms of this order, BOEM may take additional corrective action as appropriate,” the order states.
It cites a Jan. 20 memorandum from the White House withdrawing federal ocean area from consideration for wind power leases. The memorandum says it “does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.”
It also claims it does not affect the rights of existing leases in federally owned areas.
“With respect to such existing leases, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Attorney General as needed, shall conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy,” the memorandum states.
The motion to block the stop order claims the stop order does not identify any legal bases to halt construction, but instead only references “concerns” that have arisen during the review of the lease.
“The Order does not indicate what those concerns are or explain how they justify indefinitely halting a Project that BOEM has already extensively reviewed, with the outcome of that review being final approval in all respects,” the motion says.
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