The secretary of the US Department of the Interior and chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council, Doug Burgum, has stopped all construction of Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project off the coast of New York.
Burgum said in a social media post that his department, in consultation with the US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to “immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project.”
The stoppage will last until a review of information “that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis”.
In a follow-up post, Burgum stated that US president Donald Trump called for comprehensive reviews of federal wind projects and wind leasing on day one and that the Department of Interior was doing its part “to make sure these instructions are followed”.
This comes soon after the Norwegian developer began construction of Empire Wind to very little fanfare. No ceremony was held or even press releases sent out to announce the milestone.
One of the rare information available regarding the operations was a mariner update in which Equinor revealed that Van Oord would be conducting subsea rock installation within the Empire Wind 1 lease area for the 54 planned wind turbines and one substation from April to July 2025.
If both project phases are completed, it will have nearly 150 turbines spanning across 320 sq km of the Atlantic Ocean.
New York governor Kathy Hochul, a strong supporter of the project, said that the fully-permitted project “has already put shovels in the ground before the president’s executive orders [were signed.”
“As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future,” she added.
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