US Justice Department 'kicks the can' on Dominion offshore wind suit amid Trump uncertainty

Once again, US Department of Justice (DoJ) has joined plaintiffs suing the federal government over its approval of Dominion Energy’s massive Virginia array in calling for a 60-day extension to proceedings, citing Trump’s moves against the industry.

Two conservative think tanks - Heartland Institute and Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) - along with multiple other plaintiffs are suing federal regulators Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) over greenlighting the 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).

The suit, filed in US District Court for the District of Virginia, asserts that the agencies failed to fully consider environmental impacts of the project underway 27 miles (43 km) off Virginia Beach.

It is one of at least 10 filed against six US offshore wind arrays, none of which has so far succeeded.

The stakes have risen, however, with President Donald Trump’s 20 January memorandum that also put existing arrays up for review with a goal of “amending or terminating” them, while enabling DoJ to stay or settle suits against the industry.

“NMFS and BOEM are under new leadership, who require time to become familiar with the issues presented by this litigation and the Presidential Memorandum and to determine how they wish to proceed,” the motion jointly filed by plaintiffs, the DoJ, and Dominion said.

The 60-day extension would help ensure “that any briefing presented by Federal Defendants to this Court will reflect the views of current agency leadership,” it added.

Timothy Fox, head of power at consultancy ClearView Energy Partners, said: “BOEM is kicking the can down the road.”

If the extension is granted, DoJ would have until 23 June to respond to the suit. As the motion was filed jointly, Fox said he expects the court to approve it.

Dominion has already spent more than half of its $10.7bn budget and aims to complete all 176 Siemens Games 14MW turbines by next year.

Empire had only just begun at-sea construction, but onshore works were underway.

At least 1,500 workers were on the job upgrading South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into Empire's marshalling and operations and maintenance hub, and the developer said it had already spent some $1.5bn of its $3bn in project financing.

BloombergNEF said in a note that Trump’s move to target “a project under construction for the first time — will spook the owners of other under-construction US offshore wind projects”, including Orsted, Dominion, Iberdrola and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

“It puts at risk billions of dollars of investments already committed,” the consultancy noted.

ClearView said in a client memo that the Trump administration “seems to be pursuing a bifurcated approach to offshore wind” by allowing “a few projects in advanced stages of development (i.e., significant construction completed) to move forward even as others—including fully permitted ones like Empire Wind—do not.”