The Trump administration has rowed in to defend Equinor’s 810MW Empire Wind 1 development in an ongoing lawsuit from a local opposition group.
The 5 September filing in federal court from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice argues that the court should deny the Save Long Beach Island opposition group’s request for an injunction against the Norwegian developer’s wind farm off the coast of New York.
The DOJ argued that the group’s “significant delay in making the request disproves any allegation of an ‘emergency’ and is fatal to any claim of irreparable harm”.
The Trump administration reversed its own stop-work order against the project and allowed work to continue following negotiations with the state of New York.
The DOJ continued that the anti-offshore wind group made their request for an injunction nearly two years after the federal government issued its permits for the project.
Save Long Beach Island has made “almost identical” claims in other cases against offshore wind farms in New Jersey, the federal government argued, but is asking for a different remedy against Empire Wind in the form of injunctive relief.