OCEAN CITY, Md. - Offshore energy company US Wind’s request for a preliminary injunction against the Trump Administration from taking any action to undermine their proposed project off Delmarva has been denied, according to court documents acquired by WBOC.
US Wind first filed their motion for a preliminary injunction in October, arguing the Trump Administration would take any avenue necessary to revoke the project’s Construction and Operations Plan, previously greenlit by the Biden Administration, if the court did not intervene. The proposed injunction would have been in place until Ocean City’s lawsuit challenging the offshore project had been resolved.
The project would see the construction of 114 wind turbines off the coast of Worcester and Sussex Counties, with undersea cables bringing power to a substation near 3Rs Beach.
A hearing on US Wind’s motion was held on Dec. 10 with U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge Stephanie Gallagher. Attorneys for US Wind argued that delays and setbacks incurred from the administration’s clear hostility to offshore wind had already caused irreparable harm to the project. With a preliminary injunction, the company’s attorneys argued, the project could move forward while the lawsuit continued and without fear of hindrance from the federal government.
Attorneys for US Wind went on to say the project was not currently awaiting any federal approvals for the construction of the project, but the next steps of the project were also on pause. Those steps would involve major financial investments, the attorneys said, and US Wind was not willing to make those investments while risking the government’s reversal of the Construction and Operations Plan.
A preliminary injunction from the court would help alleviate that risk, US Wind argued.
The federal government “and any person or entity acting in concert or participation with the Government, are preliminarily RESTRAINED AND ENJOINED, pending conclusion of the proceedings before this Court, from taking any action to vacate, remand, withdraw, rescind, or in any way undermine US Wind’s Construction and Operations Plan approval,” US Wind’s proposed preliminary injunction order, submitted to Judge Gallagher, reads.
Attorneys representing the government argued the proposed injunction was too broad, especially taking issue with the phrase “any person or entity acting in concert or participation with the Government.”
On Dec. 15, Judge Gallagher denied US Wind’s motion, saying the government hadn’t taken any final action to justify a preliminary injunction.
“US Wind similarly must wait to see ‘if its fears comes to pass’ and BOEM makes some decision that has some legal consequence, such as the denial of ‘a discrete service’ that US Wind needs from BOEM to continue its project or a formal revocation of the COP, which would legally preclude US Wind from continuing its project,” Judge Gallagher wrote in her opinion Monday.
“US Wind may continue to develop the project under the approved COP that remains in force,” Gallagher went on to say. “It simply has made a business decision not to do so in light of the political headwinds it perceives.”
Monday’s order denying the preliminary injunction follows U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher denying an earlier motion by the Trump Administration to remand and vacate the previous administration’s approval of the project.
Both today’s denial and the previous one were issued without prejudice, meaning either party could pursue their motions again at a later juncture in court.
WBOC reached out to both US Wind and attorneys representing Ocean City regarding this latest legal development.
“US Wind remains confident in the validity of all permits issued for our project, and we will continue to vigorously defend them in court,” said Nancy Sopko, Vice President of External Affairs for US Wind.
Ocean City issued the following public statement in full:
"As to the matters before the federal court during the December 10th hearing, Ocean City and its Co-Plaintiffs have prevailed completely. Less than a week after dismissing US Wind’s counterclaim against Ocean City and the other Plaintiffs who are challenging the offshore wind project approvals, on Monday, the United States District Court denied US Wind’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which had sought to prohibit the federal government as well as Ocean City and its co-Plaintiffs from taking any action that would “undermine” the federal project approvals, including the federal agencies’ re-consideration of the permits. As the Court made clear in Monday’s ruling, it will now proceed to consider the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims (their challenges to the project approvals) after the administrative record has been submitted and the parties have eventually filed briefs; but in the meantime, the federal agencies may conduct an internal reevaluation of the project approvals, as they have said they will do. By all indications from US Wind at last week’s hearing (as noted by the Court in its ruling on Monday), further progress on the project has been electively stopped by US Wind and will remain stopped indefinitely. Ocean City remains committed to its fight against development and construction of US Wind’s enormous offshore wind project, which will harm our environment, viewshed, and commercial and residential communities."
WBOC will continue to provide the latest updates on the ongoing litigation over US Wind’s proposed project off the shores of Delmarva.