The Trump administration wants a federal court to let it take a second look at the approval for a massive wind farm proposed off the Massachusetts coast, the latest move in a string of attempts to unwind offshore wind permits issued under President Joe Biden. The Justice Department filed the request Tuesday, asking a judge to send Avangrid Inc.'s New England Wind project back to the Interior Department for re-evaluation.
According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department wants the Interior Department to re-evaluate the construction and operations plan approval the project received under the Biden administration, with the stated goal of ensuring it complies with the federal law governing energy development in ocean waters. The request is one of several the administration has filed targeting offshore wind permits since President Trump returned to office, as reported by The Boston Globe.
The stakes extend well beyond Massachusetts' coastline and into New Bedford, where New England Wind 1 is slated to house its long-term operations and maintenance hub, according to New Bedford Light. The project, along with SouthCoast Wind, had issued letters of intent to use the under-construction Foss Marine Terminal for operations and maintenance work expected to last roughly three decades, the outlet reports. New England Wind 1 itself is planned to be built out of Salem.
New Bedford's Jobs on the Line
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell has said that stopping the project would eliminate at least 100 future jobs in the city alone, not counting indirect jobs and other economic benefits, per the same New Bedford Light report. An Avangrid filing from 2024 indicated the company planned to start construction in the second quarter of 2026 at the earliest, though the current construction status of the project was not detailed in the filing reviewed by the outlet.
The federal government told the court the timeline for its review is currently uncertain and asked that no deadline be imposed, the New Bedford Light reported. Depending on the outcome, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could ultimately revoke the project's construction and operations plan approval altogether or approve it again with new conditions attached, according to the same report.
Bloomberg's headline on its report pegs the project's value at $14.6 billion. Federal regulators' own records describe a sizable buildout: BOEM's Record of Decision documented approval for construction of up to 129 wind turbines within the lease area, according to the agency's own project page.
Part of a Broader Pattern
This is at least the third time the administration has sought a remand of an offshore wind approval, following similar moves against SouthCoast Wind and Maryland's US Wind project, the New Bedford Light noted. A federal judge already allowed the administration to reconsider approval of SouthCoast Wind, a 2,400-megawatt project planned roughly 23 miles south of Nantucket and 60 miles east of Rhode Island, according to E&E News.
SouthCoast Wind's CEO, Michael Brown, told WBUR, “the company has already invested more than $600 million in the project.” The same report noted that the administration had also issued a stop-work order for the nearly completed Revolution Wind project near Rhode Island, and that wind advocates had braced for a similar order targeting Vineyard Wind, the 62-turbine project under construction near Martha's Vineyard.
A similar fight has already played out in New Jersey, where a judge granted the administration's request to reconsider approval for the stalled Atlantic Shores offshore wind project, according to RTO Insider. That ruling followed an August decision in which a district court granted the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's request to voluntarily remand its Atlantic Shores approval, per the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program tracker.
A Shifting Federal Posture Since 2025
The administration's approach traces back to a January 2025 memorandum in which President Trump directed the Interior secretary to review existing offshore leases and ordered agencies not to issue new or renewed wind approvals, according to the Harvard tracker. That pause did not survive court scrutiny intact: a federal district court vacated it in December 2025, ruling the pause had violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the tracker states.
The administration's broader opposition to offshore wind comes as the industry still measures itself against the Biden administration's goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, per the Harvard program. Comparable federal challenges to offshore wind approvals elsewhere have tended to play out over extended timelines, dragging project schedules along with them, according to Newsquawk.
Not every East Coast project has faced this scrutiny. Block Island Wind off Rhode Island and South Fork Wind off New York are the only two wind farms on the East Coast that have remained unaffected by the administration's pause, according to Nantucket Current. That same report noted the administration announced a pause of five federal offshore wind leases, including Vineyard Wind, in December 2025, citing radar interference and national security concerns.
Massachusetts Pushes Back
Not everyone in Massachusetts is on board with reopening the New England Wind approval. A Massachusetts attorney general brief encouraged the court to deny the federal government's motion to remand the project's construction and operations plan, according to a filing described by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. The brief underscores how contested the fate of the project remains even as the legal process plays out.
