Sawt Falasteen - Orsted files lawsuit against US suspension of wind turbine leases

The US Interior Department on December 22 said it had paused leases for all five of the country's offshore wind projects under construction, citing unspecified national security risks and casting new doubt over the future of an industry detested by President Donald Trump.

Orsted has a 50 percent stake in the Revolution Wind project alongside a renewables infrastructure developer that is part of the BlackRock investment group.

The park of 65 turbines off the coast of Rhode Island is 87 percent complete and had been set to go online this year and provide power for more than 350,000 homes, according to Orsted.

"While Revolution Wind continues to seek to work constructively with the Administration and other stakeholders towards an expeditious and durable resolution of this matter, it believes that the lease suspension order violates applicable law," Orsted said in a statement.

The Revolution Wind project faces substantial harm from a continuation of the lease suspension order, it said, and noted an earlier suspension of the project by the Trump administration in August was overturned by the courts.

"As a result, litigation is a necessary step to protect the rights of the project," it added.

The move by the Interior Department came only weeks after a judge ruled that a blanket ban on new offshore permits -- signed by Trump on his first day in office in January -- was illegal.

The Interior Department did not specify what the risks were, but it noted that the Department of Energy had also previously identified potential issues related to radar interference.

Orsted said that Revolution Wind secured all required federal and state permits in 2023 following extensive reviews that lasted years, which included consultations with the US military.

"Those consultations resulted in a fully executed formal agreement between the Department of War, the Department of the Air Force, and Revolution Wind outlining mitigation measures" to be undertaken as part of the project, Orsted said.

Trump has long complained that wind turbines ruin views and are expensive.

In addition to his order attempting to ban new wind farm permits, Trump's administration has also moved to block all federal loans for wind energy.

N.Awad--SF-PST