The Norwegian Energy Company Equinor said Friday that he will be forced to finish a wind project on the high seas for New York in a matter of days unless the president Donald Trump The administration yields its order that stopped the construction.
The work at Empire Wind has stopped since April 16, when Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, directed the Ocean Energy Management Office To stop construction. Burgum said it needs an additional review because it seemed that the administration drove the approval. Equinor went through a permissions process seven years before starting to build Epire Wind last year, and the project is approximately one complete third.
Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly the wind on the high seas, and has signed a Executive Orders Support aimed at increasing oil, gas and coal. His first day in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily stop wind lease sales in federal waters and stop the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for all wind projects.
Empire Wind is totally allowed and the developer has already invested more than $ 2.5 billion so far in the project, said Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, in an interview on Friday.
She said that this is an “urgent and unsustainable situation” because every day of uncertainty is extremely expensive: Equinor spends up to $ 50 million per week on the project and has 11 vessels waiting. The developer has already made a significant amount of work on land, where the wind farm cable will connect to the local network.
“If there is no material progress towards a resolution in a matter of days, Equinor will be forced to finish the project,” he said. “It is about honoring contracts and financial investments made in the US.
The interior department did not immediately respond to the emails in search of comments.
Equinor has more than $ 60 billion in investments in the United States, including substantial oil, gas and renewable projects. RWE, a German energy company, has stopped its wind work on the high seas in the United States, citing the political environment. The French Energy Giant Totalenergies stopped the development of his wind project in the high seasion in New York after Trump won re -election.
Equinor is considering legal options, but instead of being tied in court, Morris said that the best way to advance is a faster political resolution. The summer construction window for the main works on the high seas began this month, and lost the project a year, he said.
The CEO of Morris and Equinor, Anders Opedal, met with Kevin Hasett, director of the National Economic Council, Wednesday. She said it was useful, but they have asked to meet Burgum and have not received a meeting.
Equinor is building Wind Empire to start providing energy in 2026 for more than 500,000 New York houses. Equinor ended the federal lease contract for the Empire wind In March 2017, early in Trump’s first mandate. The Ocean Energy Management Office approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and the construction began that year.
New York leads a coalition of State General Prosecutors that challenge the Executive Order of Wind Energy in Court. They say in the lawsuit filed on Monday that Trump does not have the authority to closely close the permit process, and is endangering the development of a critical energy source for economic vitality, the combination of energy, public health and the climatic objectives of the states.
The White House says that the general Democratic prosecutors are trying to stop the president’s popular energy agenda instead of working with him to restore the United States energy domain.
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