By Nichola Groom
(Reuters) -The Trump administration lifted a month-old stop-work order on a major offshore wind facility planned off the coast of New York, the project’s developer said on Monday.
Norwegian energy company Equinor said construction activities were allowed to resume on Empire Wind, a $5 billion project that is expected to one day provide power for half a million New York homes.
“I would like to thank President Trump for finding a solution that saves thousands of American jobs and provides for continued investments in energy infrastructure in the U.S.,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement in which he also thanked Norway’s leadership for raising the issue with the Trump administration.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul was also instrumental in getting the project back on track, Opedal said.
Officials from the U.S. Interior Department, which issued the order last month, were not immediately available for comment.
Equinor purchased the Empire Wind lease during Trump’s first administration in 2017, and the 810-megawatt project was approved under former President Joe Biden in 2023. It is 30% complete, according to the company.
But on April 16, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Equinor to halt construction, saying the Biden administration had rushed the project’s approval without sufficient environmental analysis.
He cited concerns raised in an internal report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which assists the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in permitting offshore wind projects by assessing impacts on marine mammals and fisheries.
As of last week, Equinor said it was spending $50 million a week to keep the project afloat and warned it could be canceled within days.
Trump has vowed to expand domestic energy production as part of his energy dominance agenda, but wind is excluded from that effort. He issued an executive order on his first day in office pausing new leasing and permitting of wind projects, which he says are ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife.
An industry group praised the administration for lifting the stop-work order.
“The administration is clearing the way for major investments to move forward – activating American shipyards, creating high-quality jobs, and accelerating the buildout of infrastructure needed to deliver reliable, domestic energy to the East Coast,” National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said in a statement.
“With power demand surging due to AI, data centers, and advanced manufacturing, offshore wind is an important part of an all-of-the-above solution,” Milito said.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Chris Reese)
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