CT Heads Back To Court In Effort To Restart Revolution Wind

by Staff Report

HARTFORD, CT — Connecticut and Rhode Island are heading back to court in an effort to block the Trump administration’s latest attempt to halt work on the Revolution Wind offshore generation project.

“Donald Trump is escalating his lawless and erratic attack on Connecticut ratepayers and workers,” said Attorney General William Tong. “Every day this project is stalled costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated energy bills when families are in dire need of relief. Revolution Wind was vetted and approved, and the Trump Administration has yet to disclose a shred of evidence to counter that thorough and careful process.”

The administration first issued a stop work order on August 22. Connecticut and Rhode Island sued. Developer Ørsted sued separately. The federal district court in the Ørsted challenge issued an injunction, allowing work on Revolution Wind to proceed.

Then, on December 22, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management once again suspended work on the Revolution Wind offshore wind project for at least 90 days, citing undisclosed national security concerns. Ørsted has sought a preliminary injunction to block this latest stop work order.

On Monday, Connecticut and Rhode Island filed their own request, outlining the immediate harm facing their states and residents.

Located 15 nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Revolution Wind is a wind energy facility expected to deliver enough electricity to the New England grid to power 350,000 homes, or 2.5 percent of the region’s electricity supply. The project had been on track to begin delivering power to the New England grid this month, supplying much needed power during the challenging winter heating season.

Tong said delay would cost Connecticut ratepayers millions of dollars. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has estimated that a 90-day delay in the construction and operation of Revolution Wind would cost ratepayers in Connecticut and the broader New England region approximately $350,000 per day, for a total of $31 million in higher electricity costs, Tong said.

Revolution Wind is projected to save Connecticut and Rhode Island ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years. The Revolution Wind project supports over 2,500 jobs nationwide in the construction, operations, shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors, including over 1,000 union construction jobs. The project has been vetted and approved through every layer of the federal and state regulatory process and is supported by binding contracts and legal mandates.

In addition to the motion for preliminary injunction, Tong and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha also sought Monday to consolidate the states’ existing lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with a parallel suit filed by developer Ørsted challenging the initial August 22 stop work order. The judge in that case had issued an injunction allowing work on Revolution Wind to proceed. Monday’s filing seeks to consolidate those two lawsuits as they involve common questions of law and fact.