Development of the Revolution Wind project began more than a decade ago. In 2013, Deepwater Wind New England LLC won a federal auction for two leases in the wind energy area designated by the intergovernmental task force; Ørsted later acquired those leases when it bought the company. From 2016 to 2020, the Danish firm assessed the site and continued to engage stakeholders, like local fishermen, according to BOEM records.
Between 2020 and 2023, Revolution Wind endured an extensive regulatory review, including from the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration. Since wind turbines have the potential to affect air-traffic radar and aviation navigation, the FAA conducted an airspace analysis. The agency ultimately approved the project under the condition that all turbines be built to lighting and marking standards that would ensure they’re visible to aircraft at night.
In August 2023, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers co-signed the authorization of plans for Ørsted to build 65 wind turbines for the Revolution Wind project. The National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also signed the authorization.
During Revolution Wind’s long road to construction, it had strong support from neighboring states, which have made ambitious renewable energy commitments in recent years.
“The Trump administration’s stop-work order on Revolution Wind undermines efforts to expand our energy supply, lower costs for families and businesses, and strengthen regional reliability,” said Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat, in a statement.
In a post to X, McKee said that he and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, also a Democrat, “will pursue every avenue to reverse the decision to halt work on Revolution Wind.” Lamont, in an Instagram post, called the order a “political move.”
This new fight between the two governors and the feds could play out similarly to the fight between New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Trump administration over the Empire Wind project earlier this year. After weeks of developer Equinor threatening to walk away from the halted project due to the high costs of delayed construction, the Trump administration reversed course and lifted the ban, claiming it had struck a deal with Hochul, a Democrat, to allow a natural gas pipeline to be built in the state.
On the day the Interior Department lifted the order, Secretary Doug Burgum thanked Hochul in a social media post for her “willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity.” But a representative for Hochul’s office told Canary Media at the time that “no deal on any natural gas pipeline was reached.”
The Trump administration, including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, has in recent months pushed for New England and in particular Massachusetts to build new gas pipelines.
McKee and Lamont — or perhaps Ørsted — could also opt for litigation, a route not taken by Hochul or Equinor during the Empire Wind drama.
The Trump administration’s stop-work order comes as Ørsted is seeking to raise billions of dollars from its shareholders to help complete Revolution Wind and its other fully permitted U.S. project, Sunrise Wind, after other financing options fell through.
In the earnings call announcing the fundraising effort earlier this month, Ørsted blamed its financial troubles on “unexpected developments outside our control.” Now the European firm is reeling from yet another unexpected blow from the Trump administration.
