Equinor will terminate a New York offshore wind project in the coming days unless the Trump administration lifts a stop-work order issued by the Interior Department, a company executive told POLITICO’s E&E News on Friday.
Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, said the order issued to Empire Wind by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is costing the company $50 million a week.
Burgum halted work on the 54-turbine project in April, saying Interior had “uncovered” a report from NOAA that showed the project’s approval had been rushed by federal regulators under former President Joe Biden.
Burgum has not released the report publicly. Morris said Equinor had yet to receive the document and that the company had been unable to secure a meeting with Burgum to explain his decision. The Interior Department could not immediately be reached for comment.
“This is an urgent and unsustainable situation that we are in right now with Empire Wind 1. We still do not have a resolution from the federal government, and every day of uncertainty is extremely expensive for us,” Morris said. “This issue is bigger than Empire Wind and the offshore wind industry. This is about lawfully permitted energy projects that are under construction being stopped. This is also about honoring contracts and financial investments made in the U.S. that could set a dangerous precedent by stopping a project in mid execution.”
President Donald Trump has targeted offshore wind since returning to the White House. An executive order issued on his first day directed Interior to pause new permits and review existing ones. Burgum cited the executive order in issuing the stop-work order to Empire Wind. The project would be the biggest casualty in an industry rocked by economic and political setbacks in recent years.
Ørsted canceled two planned projects off New Jersey in 2023, citing higher costs and an overburdened supply chain. The prospects for a third New Jersey project, Atlantic Shores, have dimmed in recent months after one of its two developers announced it was pulling out of the project. Atlantic Shores has faced intense political opposition from Republican lawmakers and shore communities in New Jersey.
But none of those projects were particularly close to construction. Equinor began offshore work on Empire Wind in March and was halfway complete with a new terminal in Brooklyn that would serve as the project’s staging ground. The port would also serve as an interconnection point for the 810-megawatt project, which would generate enough electricity to supply 500,000 homes. Its termination would represent a major blow to New York’s climate ambitions.
Equinor has already spent $2.7 billion on the $5 billion project, said Morris, who noted the company currently has 11 vessels sitting idle on standby, costing the company about $1 million a day. It is also ramping up construction of the project’s foundation, turbines, substation and cables. It is building seven new vessels in the U.S., including one ship that would serve as Empire Wind’s offshore hub, which is 95 percent complete.
Morris declined to rule out a future lawsuit but said the company needed an immediate resolution to save the project.
“We were starting to do installation offshore. So to be able to stop that for, you know, months to wait for a temporary injunction to go through is just not feasible,” she said.
The Equinor executive bristled at Burgum’s suggestion that the project’s permit had been rushed.
“This lease was obtained in 2017, and it has taken us eight years to receive our federal permits,” Morris said. “You can figure out the math. That lease was obtained during the first Trump administration, and for four years during that we progressed the permits.”
