Federal Court Grants Preliminary Injunction, Allowing Revolution Wind to Resume Construction Immediately
On January 12, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the preliminary injunction sought by Revolution Wind, staying the December 22, 2025 suspension order issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The 704-megawatt offshore wind project off Rhode Island and Connecticut may restart impacted construction activities immediately while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.
Revolution Wind is a 50/50 joint venture between Global Infrastructure Partners' Skyborn Renewables and Ørsted, and it will supply power to Rhode Island and Connecticut. Ørsted said after the ruling that the project will resume construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority, to deliver affordable, reliable power to the Northeast, and that it will determine how best to work with the U.S. administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution.
The project was about 87 percent complete when the suspension order was issued, with 58 of its 65 turbines installed. On December 22, 2025, the Interior Department paused the leases for all five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the United States, citing national security risks identified in classified reports; Revolution Wind was one of the five, and the other four remained paused at the time. The lawsuit challenges BOEM Director's orders issued on August 22, 2025 and December 22, 2025.
According to reports of the hearing, Judge Royce Lamberth said from the bench that the December 22 stop-work order appeared unreasonable and seemingly unjustified, and that the classified information cited by the government did not constitute a sufficient explanation for entirely stopping work on the project. A preliminary injunction decides only whether the order is enforced while the case is pending; it is not a final judgment on the merits.
Related: Revolution Wind Offshore Wind Project Reaches Commercial Operation, Powering 350,000 Homes
Source: Ørsted
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：罗得岛州外海的 Block Island 海上风电场（资料照片），与 Revolution Wind 同属罗得岛外海海上风电项目。美国能源部摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island (file photo), an offshore wind project in the same waters as Revolution Wind. Photo by the U.S. Department of Energy, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
