Policy

Trump cheerleaders revolt over Empire Wind U-turn and sue for new halt

Trump Administration backed down on stop work order for Empire Wind after heavyweight lobbying effort on behalf of Equinor project

Donald Trump has a long-standing hatred of wind power but his administration backed down on its highly controversial stop work order for the under construction Empire Wind project.
Donald Trump has a long-standing hatred of wind power but his administration backed down on its highly controversial stop work order for the under construction Empire Wind project.Photo: The White House
Editor, Recharge

Some of Donald Trump’s biggest cheerleaders in his campaign against offshore wind have turned on his administration over its reprieve for Equinor's Empire Wind – and are suing in a bid to get the project halted again.

A coalition of pressure groups and fishing and seafood industry players lodged a lawsuit in New Jersey seeking to reinstate the stop-work order on Equinor’s $5bn project that was dramatically lifted on 20 May by the Trump-led Department of Interior (DoI).

The reversal apparently came after some heavyweight lobbying by high-ranking New York and Norwegian officials, and an agreement from New York governor Kathy Hochul to reconsider approval of a gas pipeline.

Some of those listed on the New Jersey lawsuit were among the most vocal in supporting the Trump government’s original April order halting the 800MW Empire Wind, which was fully permitted and well down the road to construction.

Nantucket-based group ACK for Whales, for example, cheered the April move in a capital letter-heavy statement that said Trump had “HEARD and RESPONDED to the PEOPLE and put a stop to Empire Wind ​this week”. It then urged him to extend the halt order to the almost-finished Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts.

Now ACK for Whales is among those seeking to reimpose the halt via the lawsuit, which claims that in allowing Equinor to resume work the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), part of the DoI, “failed to offer a factual and substantiated basis to support the reinstatement order.

“In fact, the reinstatement order is silent on any basis for the administrative restoration of work permits.”

As well as Trump’s interior secretary Doug Burgum, Equinor is named as a defendant on the lawsuit.

The legal action seeks to vacate Equinor’s lease for Empire Wind “on the ground that it is not legally entitled to an award of a lease on the Outer Continental Shelf because Equinor is the controlled agency or instrumentality of a foreign government, namely the Kingdom of Norway and is, therefore, ineligible to receive a lease under the Outer Continental Shelf Act.”

Equinor told Recharge in a statement: "Equinor signed its federal lease for Empire Wind in 2017. The project has undergone years of rigorous permitting and studies, and secured all necessary federal, state and local approvals to begin construction in 2024. We are aware of the filing but do not comment on pending litigation."

The New Jersey action is part of a blizzard of legal activity that has erupted since Trump took power and launched a string of executive orders seeking to curtail offshore wind leasing.

Those wider moves are already the subject of a legal action by New York and other Democrat-led states, which accused the President of "sowing chaos and upsetting the critical regulatory clarity needed for businesses to effectively operate in New York and around the country".

The Trump-led Department of Justice has already hit back claiming the states' action is "misguided" and politically motivated.

Note: update adds Equinor comment
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Published 4 June 2025, 10:05Updated 4 June 2025, 14:37
Donald TrumpEquinorUSAmericasEmpire Wind