[NOTE: Article updated on 16 September with a statement from US Wind and to specify project capacity as 1.7 GW.]
The US Department of the Interior (DOI) has filed a motion in the US District Court in Maryland to remand and/or vacate its approval of the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for US Wind’s 1.7 GW offshore wind farm planned to be built in the federal waters off Maryland.
“US Wind remains committed to building our 1,700 MW offshore wind project, one of the largest new electricity projects in the entire region” , said Nancy Sopko , US Wind VP of External Affairs.
“After many years of analysis, several federal agencies issued final permits to the project. We intend to vigorously defend those permits in federal court, and we are confident that the court will uphold their validity and prevent any adverse action against them.”
As the DOI announced earlier, the motion was submitted on 12 September as part of a legal action in which the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are the defendants. The case was brought forward by the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City against the DOI, BOEM and NMFS for approving the COP for US Wind’s project, which the federal government says would then be moot if its request for “voluntary remand with vacatur” is approved.
BOEM is seeking to either remand or remand and vacate the COP approval the agency issued to US Wind in December 2024 to re-evaluate the project and its COP approval process.
According to the now-filed motion in Maryland, neither of the requested actions means that the federal government is specifically looking to kill the project, as BOEM wants to withdraw the approval to revise its decision under a different interpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).
Still, while the motion in the district court is steering clear of making any advance judgment on the project’s COP (re)approval, statements from the US Interior Secretary and the recent moves by the federal government may be interpreted as signals of the outcome, should the district court even approve the request to remand.
Earlier this month, the US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a press conference during an event in Italy that offshore wind had no future in the US under the Trump administration. Burgum said offshore wind was “ too expensive and not reliable enough” .
In August, the federal government withdrew and terminated funding for twelve offshore wind-related port upgrade projects, totalling USD 679 million (approximately EUR 580 million), saying that these funds would be used, where possible, “to invest in real infrastructure” . This was announced only days after the DOI issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, a nearly built offshore wind farm that is set to serve Connecticut and Rhode Island.
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The DOI and BOEM also plan to file motions to “remand with vacatur” for two more offshore wind projects that received federal approvals of their Construction and Operations Plans, Avangrid’s New England Wind and Ocean Winds’ SouthCoast Wind offshore wind projects, both approved to be built in the federal waters off Massachusetts.
The motion to remand and vacate SouthCoast Wind’s approval is expected to be submitted by 18 September and by 10 October for New England Wind.
The US offshore renewable energy organisation Oceantic Network said these were “escalating actions by the Trump administration against fully permitted offshore wind projects” and a “targeted attack” .
Following the filing of the motion to remand by BOEM, Oceantic Network’s CEO Liz Burdock said: “The unlawful actions by the Trump administration against fully permitted offshore wind projects up and down the East Coast represent one of the largest, economically devastating assaults on U.S. workers, businesses, and energy in decades. Revoking a permit on an approved project after years of thorough agency review will raise electricity prices for families, jeopardize private investment, delay economic growth, and weaken our power grid.”
Burdock added that offshore wind was already delivering for Maryland by creating skilled jobs, revitalising local steel manufacturing and port redevelopment, and attracting billions of US dollars in supply chain investment.
“This American energy resource is a generational opportunity that nearly 70% of Marylanders support. Families can’t afford to pick and choose which types of domestic energy come online to meet rising demand and costs—we need it all. Let’s make sure every community benefits by advancing a shovel-ready project set to power 600,000 Maryland homes with reliable, affordable energy”, Liz Burdock added.