In mid-April the federal government issued a stop-work order for a $5 billion offshore wind project in New York. The move stunned the industry, which was already reeling from President Donald Trump’s executive orders halting the federal permit process for such projects.
Empire Wind, being built by the Norwegian energy firm Equinor, already had all its permits and had begun construction. The firm said it was losing tens of millions because of the stop-work order.
But the administration lifted the order on May 19.
While New York Gov. Kathy Hochul praised the decision to lift the order, it was not clear what had motivated the administration and the Department of the Interior to do so. News reports suggested that the decision was linked to a future action by New York to reconsider the state’s opposition to the Constitutional pipeline that would carry natural gas from Pennsylvania to eastern New York.
Hochul denied that any discussions of pipelines were part of the weeks-long effort to get the stop work order reversed.
Empire Wind 1 is the first of a two-part project that will include Empire Wind 2. The two phases together are projected to supply 2.1 megawatts of energy, which is enough to power more than 1 million homes.
The two phases call for 147 turbines located between 15 and 30 miles off the coast of Long Island. With work resuming on the 816-megawatt-capacity Empire Wind 1, Equinor is projecting a 2027 completion date for that phase.
Not everyone is happy with the decision. The citizen group Protect Our Coast issued a statement calling the announcement that the project can resume “shocking.” The release states that the group believes “offshore wind anywhere is a terrible idea.”
Calling the location off the coast of New York and New Jersey a threat to an “especially vulnerable area,” the group says it will not stop its efforts to oppose offshore wind projects “until every scrap of steel is removed from the ocean.”
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
