By Jake Spring, Washington Post

The White House suffered three court losses last week, and the oil industry has grown alarmed by the president’s vendetta against the offshore wind industry.

And in recent months, an informal coalition of companies across the energy industry, including oil and clean energy firms, has emerged to push for an end to the targeting of wind energy, fearing they could fall prey to the same tactics in the future.

“We know what administrations can do to our projects when they have opposition to building pipelines or other energy infrastructure. This has never just been about wind,” said Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute lobby group.

The blocked wind projects have become inextricably linked to a push in Congress to overhaul the system for permitting infrastructure projects, a top legislative objective for oil firms. While a bill passed in the House, Senate debate broke down after the administration’s Dec. 22 stop-work orders for all five offshore wind projects under construction on the East Coast. Negotiations remain on hold.

“It’s time for both sides to put their weapons downand let’s work on getting comprehensive permitting reform done in this Congress,” Sommers said.

Still, analysts agree that Trump’s personal preferences are driving the anti-wind policy. More than a decade ago, he unsuccessfully sued to stop offshore wind turbines built near a Scottish golf course he owned and has apparently nursed a grudge ever since. The mounting court losses and industry pressure may not change his mind.

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By Mike Schuler, gCaptain

Turbine installation has kicked off at the nation’s largest offshore wind project just days after a federal judge lifted the Trump administration’s controversial work suspension, with Senator Tim Kaine announcing the installation of the first permanent turbine tower at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).

Local media footage shows the newly commissioned installation, U.S.-flagged Wind Turbine Installation Vessel (WTIV) Charybdis, erecting the first of 176 turbine towers 27 miles off Virginia Beach — a milestone that marks a critical turning point for the $11.2 billion project after weeks of legal uncertainty threatened to derail construction.

“Today, I toured the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and was updated on the progress made on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project,” Kaine wrote on social media. “This incredible project will bolster offshore wind in Virginia, lower costs, and grow the local economy.”

The installation follows a January 16 ruling by Judge Jamar Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which granted Dominion Energy a preliminary injunction allowing work to resume while its lawsuit challenging the Interior Department’s December 22 suspension of CVOW and four other offshore wind projects under construction in federal waters proceeds.

The decision marked the third federal court setback in a week for the administration’s offshore wind suspension, following similar rulings favoring Equinor’s $5.3 billion Empire Wind project off New York and Ørsted’s Revolution Wind in the Northeast. All had been halted by a December 22 Interior Department order citing national-security concerns tied to possible radar interference.

At the Norfolk hearing, Judge Walker concluded that Interior’s sweeping stop-work order was not narrowly tailored to Dominion’s project. The court noted that the government’s cited national security concerns — particularly related to radar interference — applied primarily to wind farm operations rather than construction activity.

The timing was critical for Dominion, which has already invested nearly $9 billion into the project and warned that the construction pause was costing roughly $5 million per day. Following the ruling, the company said it would “focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks.”

Interior had ordered the suspension on December 22, citing newly classified national security information. But a growing string of courtroom defeats suggests the administration may face difficulty sustaining the policy under judicial scrutiny.

Commissioning setbacks pushed the start of turbine installation from an initial September target to late November 2025, adding to the already complex project’s schedule pressure.