Norwegian oil and energy firm Equinor, majority owned by the Norwegian government, has gone to court in the US after President Donald Trump’s government suspended licenses again for its Empire Wind power project in the waters off New York. Trump doesn’t like renewable energy projects, and his new team is putting Equinor’s multi-billion-dollar investment in the project in jeopardy once again.
Equinor has announced that its wholly owned Empire Offshore Wind LLC filed a civil suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on the first working day of the New Year. It challenges the US Department of the Interior’s shocking order just before the Christmas holidays to suspend the entire Empire Wind project.
It’s the second time Trump’s government has stirred up trouble not just for Equinor’s offshore wind power project but also four others in the US. Last spring the new Trump government claimed the turbines posed a threat to “life in the sea,” but the licenses first granted in 2017 were later restored after protests, lobbying and a court order that the suspension was illegal. Equinor management thought the trouble was over, only to be hit with a second suspension in late December, on the grounds the turbines threaten national security because they allegedly “create problems” for radar systems.
Equinor mightily objects, claiming its wind power project complies with all “relevant national security-related requirements identified as part of the regulatory process.” Empire officials have also, according to Equinor, had weekly meetings with the US Coast Guard and other marine first responders, and “coodinated closely with numerous federal officials on national security reviews.” That began when Empire first received its offshore lease for the project nearly nine years ago, and its years of meetings with regulators have included officials at the Department of Defense, which Trump has since renamed the “Department of War.”
That’s what now seems to be breaking out between Trump’s government and the Norwegian company that’s well-known for its offshore expertise on oil fields off Norway. Equinor, the former Statoil, claims the Department of the Interior’s order to suspend the Empire Wind project is “unlawful and threatens the progress of ongoing work” at a critical stage. Commercial operations are due to begin in 2027, when the offshore turbines southeast of Long Island can start generating up to 810 megawatts of electricity.
In addition to suing the US government in Washington DC, Empire Wind is also seeking a preliminary injunction to allow construction “to continue as planned during this critical period … and avoid additional commercial and financing impacts that are likely to occur should the order remain effective.” Empire Wind officials “continue to work closely” with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), but believe they had no choice but to legally challenge the suspension in court.
The project is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, “to deliver a new source of electricity for New York and bolster grid reliability at a time of rapidly growing demand,” according to Equinor. It’s expected to provide enough power to electrify as many as 500,000 homes in New York.
Equinor also continues to argue that the project, more than 60 percent complete, represents “a significant investment in US energy infrastructure, jobs and supply chains.” It has also “revitalized” the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, claims Equinor, and construction alone “has put nearly 4,000 people to work.”
Analysts, meanwhile, have been skeptical about the project’s potential profitability and the more than USD 4 billion already invested in it by Equinor. A halt order now could turn Empire Wind into a huge loss for Equinor and, as one analyst suggested last year, “the next Norwegian industry scandal.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
