The Trump administration lifted its stop-work order on the Empire Wind project in New York, which was on the brink of being canceled after construction was paused last month.
Norwegian energy company Equinor confirmed Monday night that the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management informed the company that the stop-work order was lifted and construction activities were permitted to resume.
The dramatic reversal came just over one month after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed BOEM to halt all construction activities on the project, which is located just off the coast of Long Island, saying the Biden administration rushed the permitting process.
Equinor first secured the lease to build the wind farm project in 2017 and received its final permit under the Biden administration in 2024. In April, Burgum said a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report showed the approval process for the project was rushed. The report was never released by the secretary.
“We appreciate the fact that construction can now resume on Empire Wind, a project which underscores our commitment to deliver energy while supporting local economies and creating jobs,” Anders Opedal, president and CEO of Equinor ASA, said in a statement.
Opedal thanked President Donald Trump for finding a solution regarding the paused project.
The company said the pause cost Equinor roughly $50 million per week. If the administration refused to reconsider its stop-work order, executives said, the company would have been forced to terminate the project. The cancellation was expected to cost the company up to $2.7 billion.
Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, told Bloomberg last week that, by halting the fully permitted project, the administration was “setting a dangerous precedent” for those with contracts and financial investments in the United States.
The Empire Wind project comprises two offshore wind farms: Empire 1 in New York and Empire 2 in New Jersey. The two projects are expected to be operational in 2026 and 2027, respectively, and will provide more than 2 megawatts of power combined. That is roughly equivalent to the amount needed to power around 700,000 homes.
Only the Empire 1 project, which was 30% complete at the time it was paused, was targeted by the Interior Department’s stop-work order in April.
While Trump has long detested offshore wind, the decision to pause the project came as a surprise to many, as it was fully permitted.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order pausing offshore wind lease sales and any new approvals, permits, licenses, or loans for wind projects both on and offshore.
At the time, many in the wind power industry were confident that fully permitted projects and ones already under construction would be spared.
“When one person can decide fairly capriciously that they don’t like something for whatever reason that is and stop a project midstream, that’s incredibly concerning to investors, and those investors are going to take their money elsewhere,” Katharine Kollins, the president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, previously told the Washington Examiner.
As recently as Monday, longtime wealth adviser Terrence Keeley warned that the uncertainty around Empire Wind and other projects could deter foreign companies from investing in U.S.-based projects.
“Of course what [Interior Secretary] Doug Burgum has just done to Empire Wind One…basically closing down the project that was, according to my Equinor contacts, less than one year away from generating electricity seems a bit punitive,” Keeley said during the Energy Future Forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“You can say goodbye to foreign direct investments in the United States for any type of project, renewable or unrenewable, when that type of unreliability has come into place,” he said.
TRUMP HALT OF NEW YORK WIND PROJECT RAISES INVESTMENT FEARS
State and union officials celebrated the news of the administration’s reversal, saying restoring construction will secure over 1,50 jobs for construction workers and boost economic development in the region.
“1,500 union jobs. 500,000 homes powered by wind. That’s what Empire Wind 1 will deliver,” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said in a post to X. “I’ve been working with President @realDonaldTrump to save this project & today learned we’ve been successful. Grateful for his partnership on projects that create jobs here in New York.”
