Dominion Power, an offshore wind developer and utility serving Virginia’s “information middle alley,” filed swimsuit towards the Trump administration this week over its determination to pause federal leases for big offshore wind tasks. The transfer places a sudden cease to 5 wind farms already beneath building, together with Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind venture.
The complaint Dominion filed Tuesday alleges {that a} cease work order that the Bureau of Ocean Power Administration (BOEM) issued Monday is illegal, “arbitrary and capricious,” and “infringes upon constitutional ideas that restrict actions by the Govt Department.” Dominion needs a federal court docket to stop BOEM from implementing the cease work order.
“Virginia wants each electron we will get as our demand for electrical energy doubles.”
The swimsuit additionally argues that the “sudden and baseless withdrawal of regulatory approvals by authorities officers” threatens the power of builders to assemble large-scale infrastructure tasks wanted to fulfill rising vitality demand within the US.
“Virginia wants each electron we will get as our demand for electrical energy doubles. These electrons will energy the information facilities that may win the AI race,” Dominion stated in a December 22 press release. Virginia is dwelling to the most important focus of knowledge facilities on the earth, in line with the corporate.
The frenzy to construct out new information facilities for AI — together with rising vitality demand from manufacturing and the electrification of properties and automobiles — has put added stress on already pressured energy grids. Rising electrical energy prices have grow to be a flashpoint in Virginia elections, and in communities near data center projects across the US, in consequence. Delaying building on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm raises venture prices that prospects finally pay for, Dominion warns.
Secretary of the Inside Doug Burgum, who is known as as one of many defendants within the swimsuit, stated that the 90-day pause on offshore wind leases would permit the company to handle nationwide safety dangers, which had been apparently just lately recognized in categorized stories. The US Division of Inside additionally cited issues about generators creating radar interference.
“I wish to know what’s modified?” nationwide safety professional and former Commander of the USS Cole Kirk Lippold told the Associated Press. “To my information, nothing has modified within the menace atmosphere that will drive us to cease any offshore wind packages.”
The Trump administration beforehand halted building on the Revolution Wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Empire Wind venture off the shore of New York earlier than a federal choose and BOEM lifted stop work orders. These tasks have now been suspended again. President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum upon getting into workplace in January withdrawing areas on the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leasing, which a federal judge struck down earlier this month for being “arbitrary and capricious.”
Dominion Power says it had already obtained all of the federal, state, and native approvals vital for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm, which broke floor in 2024. The corporate has already spent $8.9 billion so far on the $11.2 billion venture that was anticipated to begin producing energy subsequent yr. Totally up and operating, the offshore wind farm is meant to have the capability to supply 9.5 million megawatt-hours per yr of carbon pollution-free electrical energy, about as a lot as 660,000 properties may use within the US.
