Danish energy company Orsted said it plans to file another legal challenge against a Trump administration order to halt construction of a U.S. offshore wind project.
The renewables company said Wednesday that its Sunrise Wind Project off New York’s coast faces substantial harm from last month’s stop-work order and that it would initiate preliminary legal proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
European energy companies have invested billions of dollars in renewable offshore projects offshore U.S., with many midway through construction or nearing completion.
Following government orders that have hamstrung their completion, companies have turned to legal challenges in a bid to protect their investments.
Last Friday, Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables filed a similar challenge concerning their $5 billion Revolution Wind project offshore U.S. Meanwhile, Norway’s Equinor said it would file a legal challenge over the stopwork order at its Empire Wind project off New York.
The U.S. government in December paused the federal leases for five East Coast projects in the works “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.”
Orsted said it had previously secured all necessary permits for Sunrise Wind following multi-year reviews, including consultations and mitigation agreements with military bodies.
The company said the project is 45% complete and had been expected to begin generating power by October this year. The plant would generate power nearly 600,000 homes once fully operational in 2027, Orsted said.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which issued the initial stopwork order, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned legal action.
The government paused the Revolution Wind project in August before a federal judge in September said construction could resume. The Trump administration also halted construction of Empire Wind last spring before negotiations between the administration and Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul enabled it to resume.
Write to Adam Whittaker at adam.whittaker@wsj.com