The Trump administration is facing yet another lawsuit against its efforts to shut down wind energy development — this time for halting an offshore farm that is 80% complete.
Revolution Wind, the wind farm project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, filed the lawsuit against Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum and other federal government officials and agencies on Thursday, asking for an injunction to lift the administration’s stop-work order and allow it to resume work.
“The Stop Work Order was issued without statutory authority, lacks any evidentiary
basis, and is unlawful,” Revolution Wind’s complaint said.
Revolution Wind alleges that an Aug. 22 letter from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ordering construction halted on the wind farm because of “concerns related to the protection of national security interests” is a violation of two federal statutes and due process rights granted by the Constitution.
The “[Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act] and Department of the Interior regulations provide specific processes to be followed if the Department believes there is a need to suspend a lease or halt activities for reasons specified in the statute, applicable regulations, and the Revolution Wind lease. BOEM completely disregarded those processes here,” the complaint reads.
In a statement about the lawsuit, Revolution Wind said that in addition to going through the courts, it will “continue to seek to work collaboratively with the Administration and other stakeholders toward a prompt resolution” regarding the stop-work order.
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NOTUS.
Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee also indicated in a letter this week to Burgum that the two have spoken about the project and that Burgum requested information about the wind farm’s existing infrastructure from McKee and other state officials.
Rhode Island and Connecticut also announced their intent to file a separate lawsuit Thursday against the administration in Rhode Island federal district court. That lawsuit, according to the release, will also allege that the government’s stop-work order for Revolution Wind is “arbitrary and capricious” and that it “violates both the Administrative Procedure Act and the government’s authority under OCSLA” — the same statutes cited in Revolution Wind’s lawsuit.
“This is bizarre, this is unlawful, this is potentially devastating, and we won’t stand by and watch it happen,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement announcing the states’ lawsuit.
Revolution Wind argued in its complaint against the Interior Department that the national security basis for the stop-work order does not hold any weight.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not explain the basis for halting the project over national security, the filings said, “particularly in light of previous agency findings supporting approval of the Project that specifically addressed national security and other uses of the Outer Continental Shelf.”
Rep. Seth Magaziner, who represents Rhode Island, told NOTUS this week that he does not think the administration’s national security arguments are founded in reality.
“There’s no reason why there would be legitimate national security concerns now that didn’t exist a year ago when the Department of Defense gave its final approval for the project,” Magaziner, a Democrat, said two days before the lawsuit was filed. “If the administration thinks that something has changed, they ought to be able to say what it is.”
In the lawsuit, Revolution Wind underscores multiple times that the start of the review process for the offshore wind project began more than a decade ago, when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management first held meetings about the wind farm’s development.
“These reviews have resulted in thousands of pages of data and have uniformly concluded that the Project is environmentally sound, safe and consistent with federal law,” the complaint said.
Revolution Wind was set to begin operating in 2026 and was expected to power more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Supporters of the project have voiced concerns about the stop-work order’s economic impact — including on local businesses and contractors.
Robin Kundis Craig, a professor at the University of Kansas Law School and an expert on offshore wind and water rights, told NOTUS that there likely are multiple legal pathways for Revolution Wind to win a case — but the stop-work order could still do damage before judges deliver any relevant rulings.
“I suspect that for Revolution Wind, in particular, the court’s not going to buy the reasons for stopping it,” she said. “But you know, that’s going to take time. And in the interim, Revolution Wind is losing money as they can’t build.”
In a court filing that accompanies its lawsuit, Revolution Wind argues that the stop-work order is so costly that it could eventually force the developers to cancel the project, which would create legal complications given existing contracts and timelines for the project.
“The longer the Stop Work Order remains in place, the more likely it is that the Stop Work
Order will lead to the Project’s termination,” that filing said. “Overall, the delay caused by BOEM’s Stop Work Order is already costing Revolution Wind millions of dollars per week.”