Trump Administration Requests Remand of Federal Approval for Another Offshore Wind Farm

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a federal court to remand the federal approval of the New England Wind offshore wind project to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which issued it last year and now wants to conduct further review, according to a filing submitted on 2 December in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

In the filing, the DOJ, on behalf of the Federal Defendants in a lawsuit launched earlier this year by the organisation Ack for Whales, states that BOEM is now reconsidering its July 2024 approval of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan (COP).

BOEM says the previous decision “may have failed to account for all the impacts” required under subsection 8(p)(4) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and that the record materials “may have understated impacts” that were weighed in the approval. The agency says it intends to issue a new COP decision after its re-evaluation.

The motion cites the January 2025 Presidential Memorandum directing a federal review of offshore wind leasing and permitting, the May 2025 withdrawal of the Anderson legal opinion and reinstatement of the Jorjani opinion on OCSLA 8(p)(4), and a July 2025 Secretary of the Interior order directing reconsideration of approvals associated with wind projects.

Federal Defendants say a voluntary remand would avoid unnecessary litigation within the case it has ongoing with Ack for Whales over an approval that the agency is already revisiting. The DOJ has also requested that the court stay the case during BOEM’s reconsideration, noting that the organisation that initiated the lawsuit does not oppose the motion, while the project developers will oppose.

In the filing, the DOJ says that construction of New England Wind is not active or imminent, with the schedule in the COP indicating no offshore construction before the second quarter of 2026.

The US government had already indicated its intent to seek a remand and vacatur in relation to the New England Wind project earlier this year, and the new filing represents the follow-through of that intention.

The filing for Avangrid’s offshore wind farm comes shortly after the Trump administration filed a motion to remand and vacate for the SouthCoast Wind project, in a separate lawsuit, which the court granted.

The new filing in the New England Wind case cites that SouthCoast ruling as a relevant precedent.

New England Wind consists of two phases with a combined planned capacity of more than 2 GW.

BOEM approved the project’s COP in July 2024, based on a Record of Decision issued in April 2024.

Ack for Whales, together with several organisations opposed to the project, filed suit in May 2025, challenging BOEM’s approval and associated authorisations issued under NEPA, ESA, MMPA, NHPA and OCSLA.

BOEM says its re-evaluation may address some or all of the issues raised in the lawsuit and could potentially moot the claims once the new agency action is issued.

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