The Daily Populous Tuesday February 3rd, 2026 evening edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by jayclaw97

All five offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration in December can resume construction after a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that cleared Denmark’s Ørsted to proceed with its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York.

Ørsted’s request for an injunction blocking the interior department order was the fifth brought by an offshore wind developer since the 22 December pause on five leases. The agency stopped work on the multibillion-dollar facilities due to national security concerns around radar interference.

An interior department spokesperson said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.

Ørsted said in a statement it would resume work immediately but continue with the underlying lawsuit challenging the interior department’s stop-work order. It added it was trying to find a solution to the matter by cooperating with the US administration.

Ørsted has spent or committed more than $7bn to date to build Sunrise Wind, the company said. If the stop-work order is not lifted by 6 February, the project risks losing access to a specialized vessel needed to complete installation of an offshore cable, Ørsted attorneys argued at the hearing.

The argument was similar to those made at four other hearings in recent weeks.

“Every court to review this question has now found that the loss of specialized vessels and resulting delays amounts to irreparable harm. I agree,” Royce Lamberth, a US district court judge, said before granting Ørsted’s request.

Lamberth also granted the injunction for Ørsted’s Revolution Wind, off the coast of Rhode Island, in January.

An attorney for the justice department argued that the suspension was justified by new, classified information about risks to national security from the operation of offshore windfarms.

Offshore wind developers have faced repeated disruptions under Donald Trump, who has said he finds wind turbines ugly, expensive and inefficient.

Analyst Jacob Pedersen from Denmark’s Sydbank said political risks remained high.

“Even with the lifting of the construction freeze, there is an imminent risk that Sunrise Wind will face a very difficult and turbulent period in relation to the Trump administration’s obstruction,” Pedersen said in a client note.

Sunrise Wind is located 30 miles (48km) east of Long Island, New York, and is about 45% complete, according to Ørsted. Once built, the project will produce enough power for nearly 600,000 homes. It is expected to start operating as soon as October.

RecipeFunny2154 on February 3rd, 2026 at 00:37 UTC »

All this because he's mad he has to see them at his Scottish golf course he almost never goes to visit.

I don't believe for a second that he actually has any other interest in it. I do believe that he's surrounded by people who care about fossil fuels who are happy to feed his personal vendetta. Par for the course with this group.

RipVanWiinkle_ on February 2nd, 2026 at 22:59 UTC »

Trump is literally just sabotaging the country, making a mess out of everything.

The man fights and disrupts his own country and allies more than his supposed enemies

The next administration probably won’t get anything done cause they’ll be busy cleaning up the mess he’s leaving behind.

Also, we’re only 1 year in…

Sham government is what we have, no responsibility, no accountability, just finger pointing and sabotaging for the next guy.

We don’t have a government for the people, only for the powerful and whoever deepens their pockets

CDN-Social-Democrat on February 2nd, 2026 at 22:27 UTC »

It still blows my mind that we have such corruption and overall stupidity that we would be holding back the two cheapest forms of energy (Wind Power & Solar Power).

If there has been any lesson from the Industrial Revolution through the various periods of the Technological Revolution it is that you want to be leaders in the future NOT opponents...

This is before we even talk about the climate crisis and overall environmental crisis and all the pain coming to the working class and most vulnerable there.