By GREGORY ZELLER //
With Long Island watching anxiously from the front row, 2026 is off to a rock ’em, sock ’em start in America’s energy sector – with the Trump Administration wailing away on offshore wind and the champions of clean energy scoring powerful counterpunches.
A federal judge on Monday granted a preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume on Revolution Wind, Danish energy giant Ørsted’s 704-megawatt wind farm rising off the Rhode Island coast.
Revolution Wind possesses all required federal permits and its construction is estimated to be 90 percent complete, with the farm slated to begin feeding Rhode Island and Connecticut homes later this year. But a Dec. 22 executive order by President Donald Trump halted work on five East Coast wind projects, including Revolution Wind – ostensibly, to give the U.S. Department of the Interior and other federal agencies time to assess unspecified national-security concerns.
Ørsted, Norwegian company Equinor and Dominion Energy Virginia – all constructing offshore-wind farms along the Eastern Seaboard – immediately sued the federal government.
On Monday, in the first of those lawsuits to hit the courts, a federal judge restarted Revolution Wind, ruling that Trump’s stop-work order didn’t adequately explain the executive branch’s concerns – or explain them at all.
This is not the first time a Trump stop-work order targeting offshore-wind projects has been blown out of the water by the rule of law. But this time, it was merely half of a one-two clean-energy combo straight to the administration’s coal-coated chin.
Explain yourself: New York State Attorney General Letitia James wants some answers from the Trump Administration, which appears to be unlawfully targeting licensed, formally approved energy projects.
Another federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump Administration acted illegally when it canceled $7.6 billion in federal clean-energy grants for projects in states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election – big news for wind farms, grid-modernization projects and carbon dioxide-reduction efforts in 16 states.
These pro-clean energy decisions are being watched closely by several highly invested New York State stakeholders, including NYS Attorney General Letitia James, who filed two U.S. District Court lawsuits Jan. 9 arguing that Trump’s stop-work orders – which also halted Equinor’s Empire 1 offshore-wind project and Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind offshore-wind project – violate federal law by failing to provide a “reasoned explanation” or “genuine justification.”
“New Yorkers deserve clean, reliable energy, good-paying jobs and a government that follows the law,” James said in a statement. “These projects were carefully reviewed and already under construction when the federal government pulled the plug without explanation.”
Rising 15 miles south of Long Island, Empire Wind 1 is slated to deliver 810 MW of wind-generated energy to 500,000 homes in Brooklyn – a big step toward Albany’s goal of developing 9 gigawatts of statewide wind power by 2035. The second half of Equinor’s ambitious effort, Empire Wind 2, remains stuck in early-stage development.
Sunrise Wind, under construction 30 miles east of Montauk Point, is scheduled to produce 924 MW of clean electricity – enough to power another 600,000 homes.
Light on the legalese: Trump can’t explain his “security concerns,” but you’re a “sucker” if you support wind power.
These projects factor heavily into Long Island’s energy future and its socioeconomic present, with various regional investors – VCs, supply-chain companies, workforce-training experts and others – jumping on the idea of Long Island becoming a national model for offshore-wind success.
Both of James’ Jan. 9 lawsuits are awaiting their day in court, expected as soon as this week. If the early-2026 rounds in this ongoing heavyweight energy tilt are any indication, they’ve got a puncher’s chance – but the White House isn’t giving up without a fight.
In a meeting Friday with oil-industry executives – in which he wooed their investments in Venezuelan oil, to a dubious response – Trump labeled wind farms “losers,” called wind energy’s supporters “suckers” and reaffirmed that “I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills.”
However, the president admitted he may be screaming into the wind.
“Maybe we get forced to do something,” Trump said in televised statements, “because some stupid person in the Biden Administration agreed to do something years ago.”
