New York Attorney General Letitia James is taking on the Trump administration with a pair of lawsuits filed over the abrupt suspension of two significant offshore wind projects. According to a press release from the Attorney General's Office, James claims that the recent orders from the U.S. Department of the Interior to halt construction on the Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind projects, which are designed to power over one million homes in New York, are not legally substantiated.
Issued without clear reasoning late last month, these "national security" related stop-work orders were considered arbitrary by the Attorney General, especially given that the projects had already cleared extensive national security reviews. "New Yorkers deserve clean, reliable energy, good-paying jobs, and a government that follows the law," Attorney General James stated, asserting that the sudden suspension of these projects risks New York's economic and energy stability. Alongside the lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, James is requesting a court intervention to lift these work stoppages, as reported by the Attorney General's Office.
Backing Attorney General James, Governor Kathy Hochul has also expressed her disapproval of the Trump administration's unexpected move. "New York will not back down in our fight for a clean energy future and I commend Attorney General James for taking this action to lift the unlawful stop work orders on New York’s two offshore wind projects under construction," Governor Hochul told the Attorney General's Office. She went on to criticize the decision for lacking legal justification and emphasized how it could significantly impact the state's job creation, energy independence, and economic development. Both Governor Hochul and the head of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Doreen M. Harris, underscore the significance of these projects for New York's clean energy progress and grid reliability.
The Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind projects, totalling more than 1,700 megawatts of power, signify a monumental shift towards meeting New York's clean energy goals. Located off the coast of Long Island, the projects are a result of more than a decade's worth of federal, state, and local reviews and analyses, including those imposed by the Department of Defense. Despite that, the Department of the Interior's December 22 orders, citing unexplained "national security" concerns, have put a hold on the projects, potentially indefinitely, as they provided no specific findings or reasons for bypassing existing safeguards. Ongoing construction has been put on ice, threatening jobs and billions of dollars in investment, which is crucial for the regions economic expansion and years of workforce training programs, according to officials cited by the Attorney General's office.
Attorney General James is concerned that this unexpected suspension will not only cause immediate economic harm but also aggravate health and financial burdens on New Yorkers. By delaying these clean energy initiatives, the nearby fossil-fuel plants, which spew considerable pollution, will stay active longer, leading to higher energy costs and health risks. This suspension further endangers the state's legal mandate to secure 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and achieve a zero-emissions electric grid by 2040. She argues that these stop-work orders lack genuine justification, labeling them "arbitrary and capricious," and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, as detailed in the Attorney General's press release.
