Echoing recent rulings from the District Court for the District of Columbia, on January 16, 2026, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion Energy’s request for a preliminary injunction, lifting the Trump administration’s suspension of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Earlier that same week, two other judges in same district granted similar requests made by Equinor for its Empire Wind project and Ørsted for its Revolution Wind project. Work on the three projects has resumed and, in the case of Revolution Wind, construction is nearing completion.
The three developers successfully argued that the work stoppages would result in imminent and irreparable harm. Justice Department officials countered by claiming that the national security concerns that putatively justified the December 2025 stop work orders outweighed the developers’ economic interests. Thus far, reviewing courts have held that those security concerns, which allege a generalized risk of interference with radar systems, have not been sufficiently articulated.
While the preliminary injunctions allow the projects to continue, the cases will continue to be litigated on their merits. Concerning the remaining two projects subject to the stop work order, Vineyard Wind is challenging the stop work order in Massachusetts federal court and Sunrise Wind filed for an injunction in the District of Columbia.
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