New York Attorney General Letitia James along with her counterparts in 17 other states sued the Trump administration on Monday seeking to permanently block Trump’s complete halt on all offshore wind energy development.
The Democratic attorneys general argued in a 101-page complaint that the president’s attacks on the industry violated a litany of federal laws and are already causing significant economic harm across the country.
“This administration is devastating one of our nation’s fastest-growing sources of clean, reliable, and affordable energy,” James said in a statement. “This arbitrary and unnecessary directive threatens the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments, and it is delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet.”
The Trump administration halted all permitting for new offshore wind projects shortly after taking office, a move that hobbled the already-struggling industry. The Interior Department then ordered in mid-April that all work cease on one of the few projects already under construction: Empire Wind, a large farm off the coast of Long Island that was scheduled to deliver much-needed electricity to about half a million New York City homes beginning in 2026.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum justified the stop-work order by alleging that the Biden administration “rushed through its approval” for the project.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks at DC 37’s Lower Manhattan headquarters about their joint endorsement of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for mayor, April 23, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
In response, Equinor, the Norwegian company developing Empire Wind stopped its work on the wind project, just weeks after it had begun in-ocean construction. The land-side construction began last year.
Industry experts and state leaders in New York saw the Empire Wind freeze as significantly more surprising and aggressive than the initial Trump executive order, and it drew immediate condemnation from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who until that point had tried a more conciliatory tone with the administration. New York City has limited options for importing new sources of electricity and faces increased risks of a shortfall over the coming decades, a problem that the Empire Wind project was intended to help alleviate.
In the Monday complaint, the states asked a judge in the Massachusetts District Court to issue a preliminary injunction that would stop the administration from implementing Trump’s executive order on offshore wind.
The White House accused the attorneys general of “lawfare” against Trump.
“Instead of working with President Trump to unleash American energy and lower prices for American families, Democrat Attorneys General are using lawfare to stop the President’s popular energy agenda,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email. “The American people voted for the President to restore America’s energy dominance, and Americans in blue states should not have to pay the price of the Democrats’ radical climate agenda.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment; the Department of the Interior did not respond to a request for comment.
The suit lists dozens of states’ investments in the wind industry and the changes to construction projects, jobs, and economic commitments that Trump’s orders have already thrown into uncertainty.
New York, for example, alleged in the complaint that the state has been forced to delay its planned construction of the Arthur Kill Terminal in Staten Island because the Trump administration has refused to consider applications for the necessary construction permits. The terminal’s construction is supposed to be funded in part by a significant federal grant secured by Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2022.
“That delay is not just holding up the project, but also jeopardizing the Terminal’s ability to use the $48 million grant,” the attorneys general wrote in the complaint.
The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, was also cited in the complaint as an example of a business dependent on the development of offshore wind. Equinor is developing that project with financial support from the city and state.
For its part, Equinor executives in an April quarterly earnings call with investors indicated Empire Wind was more than 30% complete and that the company was considering its legal options.
“The situation around the Empire Wind is both extraordinary and unprecedented, and we see it as sort of an unlawful act by the U.S.,” said Equinor President and CEO Anders Opedal. “We will treat it as that.”
New York, like many of the states listed in the complaint, has a climate law that requires it to find emissions-free sources of energy.
Offshore wind, while very expensive, is one of the few larger emissions-free options for many coastal states. The complaint repeatedly alleged that the administration’s prohibitions on development will seriously cripple efforts to achieve emissions reductions goals, from Maryland to Maine to California and between.
The administration has also attacked offshore wind through other avenues, including ordering that all work stop on a Department of Energy-funded- advanced research project on floating offshore wind in Maine.
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