Empire Wind says it will ‘very likely’ kill wind farm project if work can’t resume by Jan. 16 

“The threat of project termination became even more acute on January 5, 2026, when the government took the position that certain ongoing construction activities that Empire Wind views as necessary for safety are prohibited by the suspension order, even though (it) allows activities necessary to prevent impacts to health, safety, or the environment. This development turned a dire situation for Empire Wind into a near-terminal one, making immediate relief necessary.”

Equinor is building the wind farm off Long Branch in New Jersey and Long Beach on New York’s Long Island.

It was 60% complete when the Interior Department ordered work stopped on Dec. 22, citing national security concerns including possible interference with military radar systems.

“If allowed to stand, it is very likely that the suspension order will strike a fatal blow to an ongoing offshore wind project that is fully and duly permitted under the law, and has been in active construction for over a year at a cost of billions of dollars,” Equinor wrote.

In an email Tuesday, the Interior Department defended the stop-work order.

“Offshore wind has proven to be a costly experiment that has driven up energy bills for American families,” spokesman Matt Middleton said.

“Since day one, President Trump has directed the Department of the Interior to responsibly manage our public lands and waters for multiple uses, energy development, conservation, and national defense,” he said. “The pause on large-scale offshore wind construction is a decisive step to protect America’s security, prevent conflicts with military readiness and maritime operations, and ensure responsible stewardship of our oceans.”

Empire Wind is regulated by New York authorities.

It is the last offshore wind project near New Jersey’s coastline that had a chance of being completed in the near future amid Trump’s war on wind, a technology he opposes on environmental and economic grounds.

In November, the developers of the much-delayed Leading Light wind farm wrote to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, saying they can no longer move forward under the terms approved by the board.

Leading Light had been one of two offshore wind projects still under consideration in New Jersey, along with Attentive Energy, which has preliminary approval for a wind farm 42 miles off Seaside Heights that would power more than 650,000 homes.

But Attentive is facing its own issues. The BPU agreed in April to give the project a one-year delay in making $37.3 million worth of payments the state mandated as part of its preliminary approval.

In June, Atlantic Shores, the wind project that had been farthest along in the approval process, said it too was not moving forward, at least for now, because it was “no longer viable.”

And Ørsted scrapped two huge wind farms off the South Jersey coast in 2023 in the first of many setbacks for offshore wind in New Jersey.