Offshore wind power wins a third victory in the United States against Trump

Threatened with derailment by the Trump administration, offshore wind power in the United States obtained its third legal victory of the week a few days ago, with the authorization to resume a project off the coast of Virginia, announced its promoter, the Dominion Energy group.

"Our team will now focus on restarting work to ensure that the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind field begins to deliver critical energy in just a few weeks," the American energy company wrote in a statement announcing the decision of a federal judge in this East Coast state, south of the capital.

Judge Jamar Walker's decision was made in summary proceedings, meaning that the procedure continues and the case will be examined on its merits at a later date.

However, this is a third setback for the Trump administration, which suspended, at the end of December, the five major offshore wind farm projects underway in the United States.

This suspension, declared "without rational basis", is "arbitrary and capricious", Dominion Energy denounced in its appeal filed on Christmas Eve.

She noted that $8,2 billion of the $11,2 billion planned for this project, which began in 2024, had already been spent. It aims to deploy 176 offshore wind turbines intended to electrify 660.000 homes.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington gave the green light to the restart of Empire Wind, the Norwegian company Equinor's project to launch the first wind farm to directly supply New York City with wind energy.

Once fully operational, at the end of 2027, it should provide electricity to 500.000 homes.

Earlier on Monday, another federal judge in Washington had lifted the suspension on Revolution Wind, the project by Danish giant Orsted, intended to power more than 350.000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The government justified the suspensions by citing "risks to national security", referring to confidential reports, without providing further details.

Donald Trump regularly displays his hostility towards wind power, which he considers ugly and describes as an "economic and environmental disaster".

Several studies have nevertheless shown that wind power in the United States cost, on average, less than several other sources, including coal, excluding government subsidies.

Among the two other wind farms still suspended is another Orsted project, called Sunrise Wind, off the coast of Long Island, planned to power 600.000 homes by 2027.

The fifth and final one, Vineyard Wind, not far from the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, is 95% complete and already operational.