Rhode Island and Connecticut are suing the Trump administration in an attempt to restart work on the Revolution Wind project off the Atlantic coast.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha on Thursday announced that he and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong plan to file the suit in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.
Neronha said the Trump administration failed to cite any violation of law or threat to public safety when it ordered work to stop on the project on Aug. 22. Because of that, Neronha likens President Trump’s approach to a yo-yo.
“If he wants to behave like a yo-yo, that’s up to him, but you can’t run government that way,” Neronha told reporters. “The decision-making has to be rational. And it has to be rational because not only do Rhode Islanders, but industry relies on predictability and rationality.”
The attorneys general say the lawsuit against the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management and their appointed leaders argues that the government’s action was “arbitrary and capricious” while violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the government’s authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, or OSCLA.
According to Orsted, the Danish energy company developing the wind farm, Revolution Wind is already 80% complete. The project is meant to supply electricity for 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
“With zero justification, Trump wants to mothball the project, send workers home, and saddle Connecticut families with millions of dollars in higher energy costs,” Connecticut Attorney General Tong said in a statement. “This kind of erratic and reckless governing is blatantly illegal, and we’re suing to stop it.”
Neronha said the halt on the project has idled more than a thousand local workers while potentially hurting energy reliability in southern New England.
He said he believes the lawsuit has strong odds of succeeding and he said a decision on injunctive relief, which could lead to the resumption of work on Revolution Wind, could happen in days or weeks.
The joint venture behind Revolution Wind also challenged the stop-work order in court on Thursday, according to a press release. The consortium filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Rhode Island lawmakers see projects like Revolution Wind as central to the state’s climate strategy. They would like the state to transition away from fossil fuels and become fully carbon-neutral by 2050.
In a joint statement, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Val Lawson expressed support for the lawsuit.
“We applaud the lawsuit filed today by Attorney General Peter Neronha to overturn President Trump’s unjustified stop-work order of the Revolution Wind project that is 80 percent completed,” the legislative leaders said. “This endeavor supports thousands of good-paying private sector Rhode Island jobs and is expected to deliver enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes in New England. This infusion of new power is important to address energy affordability and costs for Rhode Island consumers. This project is essential for our economy, the environment, and the affordability of our energy supply, and we wholeheartedly support today’s legal action.”
The Public’s Radio’s Jeremy Bernfeld contributed to this story.
