Attorneys General Neronha and Tong sue Trump Administration over Revolution Wind stop-work order
“This project is important, beneficial, clean, renewable, and most importantly, for purposes of this lawsuit, it is a project that is 80% done.”
“We’re here to announce the filing of a lawsuit against the Trump Administration here in Federal District Court in Rhode Island in connection with the administration’s abrupt shutdown of the Revolution Wind Project off the coast of Rhode Island on August 22,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha at a press conference in his Providence office. See: “This is bullshit.” Labor & political leaders oppose Trump’s Revolution Wind stop-work order
Attorneys General Neronha and William Tong of Connecticut intend to sue the Trump Administration to overturn the stop-work order issued on August 22, 2025, which halted the construction of Revolution Wind. The project is approximately 80% finished and was on track to be completed in 2026, when it would immediately begin providing a significant source of clean, renewable energy to the two states.
On August 22, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) issued a stop-work order to Revolution Wind without identifying any violation of law or imminent threat to safety. The order abstractly cites BOEM’s authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), ordering the stop so that the agency may address unidentified concerns.
Here’s the video:
“It’s really a story of numbers,” continued Attorney General Neronha, “numbers that have already been reported by all the media members in this room. We know how much energy the project’s going to generate. Clean, reliable, renewable energy of 704 megawatts, 400 for Rhode Island, 304 for Connecticut. It’ll power 350,000 homes.
“It will enhance the reliability of our grid. I thought it was extraordinary that ISO New England said what it did about how important this project is to the reliability of our energy grid when the need for energy is at its peak. That’s probably explained in some way by the fact that, because of AI, which I have mixed feelings about, and other things, our demand for energy is increasing, where it had been stable for some time.
“This project is important, beneficial, clean, renewable, and most importantly, for purposes of this lawsuit, it is a project that is 80% done.”
Located fifteen nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Revolution Wind is a wind energy facility expected to deliver enough electricity to the New England grid to power 350,000 homes, or 2.5 percent of the region’s electricity supply, beginning in 2026. Revolution Wind is projected to save Connecticut and Rhode Island ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years.
Approximately 80% complete, the project has been vetted and approved through every layer of the federal and state regulatory process, and is supported by binding contracts and legal mandates. Revolution Wind is an integral part of Rhode Island’s statutory mandates set by the legislature in the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Standard in 2004, as amended in 2022, and in the 2021 Act on Climate. Revolution Wind is expected to reduce Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions by 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, a very significant reduction.
“From where I stand, those projects are really important, and we have begun, if not built, an industry here in Rhode Island that can continue to grow and provide jobs for Rhode Islanders and build our economy, and through the building of that economy, fix a lot of the problems we’re facing here in Rhode Island,” continued Attorney General Neronha. “Better, higher-paying jobs mean better access to healthcare. It means better access to housing. We’re on the cusp of building that industry, and the President abruptly halted it, unlawfully.
“What stands out most about this project, even if you’re looking at it in a vacuum, is that it is 80% done. 45 of 65 turbines have been installed, and all the foundations for the turbines have been installed. The cabling is largely done. 90% of the facility at Quonset, where the electricity will come on shore, is done. That creates a reliance interest, separate and apart from the company, Ørsted. They have their own interests to pursue. This is about what Rhode Islanders need, what Rhode Islanders are relying on, and what Rhode Islanders are counting on.”
“I’ll digress just a bit,” said Attorney General Neronha. “I hear a lot about how many lawsuits we have filed on behalf of Rhode Islanders against this administration. I don’t keep track of the number of cases. We keep track of the cases, but not the numbers. What matters to me is whether the Trump Administration has violated the law, whether Rhode Islanders have been harmed, and whether we have legal standing. To date, we have recovered nearly $650 million for Rhode Islanders, which we would’ve lost had this office not taken action. $650 million. That’s the number Rhode Islanders should think about when they think about whether these lawsuits have had an impact. Not how many lawsuits there are, but how many dollars we brought back. And there are more dollars in the pipeline.”
“I’ll briefly mention what the claims are about,” said Attorney General Neronha, back on topic. “It’s basically that you can’t run a government like a yo-yo. The President may be like a yo-yo, bouncing back and forth between positions, whether it be tariffs, foreign policy, or anything else. And if he wants to behave like a yo-yo, that’s up to him. But you can’t run a government that way. That’s what the Administrative Procedures Act and other federal statutes are about: Decision-making has to be rational because not only Rhode Islanders but also the industry relies on predictability and rationality. Stopping the project at this point is hardly rational.
“That’s not how agency action is supposed to work. You make a decision, explain why you made the decision, explain how the law and the facts come together, and then a court can review it.”
The complaint, filed today against the Department of the Interior, BOEM, and their appointed leaders, alleges that such arbitrary and capricious government conduct violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the government’s authority under OCSLA.
Both laws “demand reasoned decision-making, fidelity to statutory limits, and respect for the settled expectations of sovereign States and regulated parties.” The Complaint further states that Rhode Island and Connecticut “seek to restore the rule of law, protect their energy and economic interests, and ensure that the federal government honors its commitments.”
The complaint asks that the court declare the stop-work order unlawful and block the Trump Administration from halting Revolution Wind’s development.
“Those of us who believe in renewable clean energy hear a lot that this will cost Rhode Islanders more,” said Attorney General Neronha. “Just the opposite. Stable energy prices will cost Rhode Islanders less in the long run. What we see every year are spikes in our energy costs. Oil and gas prices spike. Wind energy is reliable, and it’s because of that stability and reliability that Rhode Islanders should count on this project and others that are following in its wake, so they can rely on renewable, clean energy that will keep prices for energy stable.”
Questions from the reporters are in this footnote1
Ian Donnis: The President and other opponents of wind power argue that the adverse effects of wind power are greater than the benefits in terms of the effect on the environment, the fishing industry, etc. Why are they wrong in their argument?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: There are lots of reasons. What I find remarkable is that we don’t hear about the adverse environmental effects of wind farms across this country. I drove my son back from Wichita, Kansas, a few summers ago. There were turbines in every direction. The President is bringing an all-out assault on wind. I read some recent reports that he is against, taking on, or seeking to stop an energy transmission line that would bring clean, renewable energy from Kansas to Indiana. Why? I have my theories, and many of them involve the fossil fuel industry that may have been in this President’s ear. However, all the research, whether land-based wind energy or marine-based offshore wind energy, has been debunked. Some fishermen are earning supplemental income working on Revolution Wind, and are grateful for it. The President is plainly wrong, and for whatever reason, this is in his head, notwithstanding the obvious benefits of the industry.
Ian Donnis: Are you seeking court action that would speed the resumption of work on Revolution Wind?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: Absolutely, yes. We are looking for injunctive relief to bring this project back online. When I’m driving to and from home, when I’m out on the bay, I see what’s out there, and there are a lot of ships. Last night, I was counting on an app that I have, which shows that five ships related to wind energy are just sitting out there in the bay, which would put Rhode Islanders and others to work on this project. It’s a waste of money and a waste of time. The longer those ships sit there without doing anything, the more this project literally sails away.
Ian Donnis: What is the expected timeline before a decision is made on that injunctive relief?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: Hopefully, it will be as quick as possible. The goal is to have this done in a matter of days, at most weeks, not months. That’s something else lost in some of the work that we’ve been doing. We’ve been getting injunctive relief here in Rhode Island and across the country, allowing us to save that $650 million I referred to earlier. It’s not like it’s going to take two or three years. We’ve been able to get results very quickly.
Ian Donnis: If the stop work order is upheld, can you quantify the dollar impact on Rhode Island and Connecticut?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: I can’t quantify it. I can categorize things that it will do. It will destroy, in my opinion, the wind industry, because if a project that is completely permitted over a period of 10 years, as our complaint alleges, can be stopped in its tracks without any rationale or reasoning, then why would anybody invest in anything, particularly the wind industry, while this President is in office for three and a half years? It will halt a thriving and growing industry, which is bad for Rhode Islanders in terms of our economy. It will be bad, as ISO New England indicated, for the reliability of our grid. In the long run, it will raise costs. Certainly, our energy costs will continue to have these wild swings back and forth.
One of the things that has been most frustrating as Attorney General has been our inability, as hard as we have worked on some of these energy cases, to address Rhode Islanders' concerns about energy prices. They’re concerned because of these swings, not just between summer and winter but year over year. There are many ways that Rhode Islanders and the people of Connecticut will be impacted, but in terms of a dollar amount, that’s very hard to do.
Steve Ahlquist: You mentioned the impact on the industry, but other projects are in the pipeline. Will this lawsuit in any way inoculate those projects from the same?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: It should, in the sense that if we get the relief we seek, and I’m confident that the odds of that are very strong, then certainly the Administration will have to take a rational, fact and law-driven approach to try and stop those projects, if that’s what it decides to do. It can’t just be on the President’s whim, and that’s clearly what he’s done here.
To be candid, the more the project is in the pipeline, the greater the reliance interest by the public, the company, and the developer. Looking at it from a lawyer’s point of view, what makes this case particularly strong is how much work has already gone into it. The farther you come away from that, the more it becomes a matter of policy. Nevertheless, the law allows for offshore clean, renewable energy development. It’s been the law passed by Congress since 2005, and the President can’t ignore it. Certainly, developers applying or who have already applied have rights under existing law. This is just a particularly strong case given how much investment there has already been.
Ed Fitzpatrick: Can you talk more about that reliance interest? You’re saying he shouldn’t run government like a yo-yo, but what’s the legal option? What does the law require him to do at this point?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: What the Administrative Procedures Act requires, and as our complaint lays out, is rational decision-making, the opposite of operating like a yo-yo. The way the President does business isn’t reliable. The law requires that when an agency makes decisions, they have to be based on the law and the facts, and there’s nothing about this decision that’s based on the law or the facts.
What do I mean? There’s nothing in there about why the project was stopped. There’s nothing in the stop-work order. Nothing in there about anything done by the developer violated the terms of the permit. There are some vague references to national security. All of those issues were vetted, over nine years, by the federal government, so this is a classic yo-yo decision-making process where, for nine years, there was a pathway to yes, and then, on August 22, the yo-yo came back up, and it was no. You can’t operate a government that way.
There are three claims: One involves the statute that permits offshore wind itself, and then there are two Administrative Procedures Act-related claims that effectively go to either the lack of authority to take the action that the President’s agencies did, or that they acted in a way that was arbitrary and capricious, which means it was irrational decision-making.
Ed Fitzpatrick: Do you see this ultimately being resolved with a legal or political solution? Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee asked to meet with Trump face-to-face.
Attorney General Peter Neronha: You know how I feel about that. Nothing other than giving the administration a downside changes behavior, which requires action. You can talk all you want, but this President will not change his behavior unless you do something. I know a bully when I see one, and that’s what this President and his administration are. The difference between Trump I and Trump II is that today, he’s surrounded by bullies. I have to say, when someone sends me a letter that says, "This ends now,” my reaction is to laugh at it. That’s not inviting a conversation, that’s inviting a surrender. And I’m not wired for surrender.
Reporter: Have you seen a project of this size stopped this far along before?
Attorney General Peter Neronha: No.
Ed Fitzpatrick: The New York Times reported yesterday that federal agencies are joining this battle against wind power, and one of them is HHS (Health and Human Services). I want to get your thoughts on HHS looking at the electromagnetic fields.
Attorney General Peter Neronha: My wife’s a healthcare worker, and to divert for a little bit, this notion that vaccinations for children may be optional or will be optional in some states is frightening to me as a parent.
Anyway, what do I think of that? I don’t really think anything of it. Like many things, it just has no moment for me. I look at the law, the facts, and the situation. We will bring our lawsuit, and the other side is who the other side is. I don’t really know what that’s all about. I try not to sleep with my cell phone right next to my head, but it’s still in my room. I’m still using my microwave, and I’m not, at least today, showing effects. I’m not terribly concerned about it.
What’s really at stake here is a clean, renewable, reliable energy source in the context of a project that’s 80% done. We shouldn’t be distracted by fanciful notions of threat. And I have to say that if all of a sudden there are concerns, then I have real questions about the ability of an agency that looked at this project for nine years and never once voiced those concerns.
This is about political change at the top, not civil service work throughout an agency. Look, there’s certainly a role for political appointees. I was one as U.S. Attorney, but those political appointees in the past have always had a healthy respect for the subject matter experts. In this administration, that healthy respect is gone, hurting Rhode Islanders and Americans.
Attorney General Neronha files Preliminary Injunction to immediately reverse Revolution Wind stop work order
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong today filed a motion for preliminary injunction in their ongoing lawsuit against the Trump Administration to overturn the stop work order abruptly and arbitrarily issued on August 22, 2025, which halted the construction of Revolution Wind.
Rhode Island and Connecticut filed suit against the Trump Administration on September 4, 2025 in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island asking the court to overturn the stop work order. Today’s filing lays out the immediate and irreparable harm to Rhode Island and Connecticut and asks the court to impose an injunction to allow work to resume immediately while the case proceeds.
“We have no time to waste in getting Revolution Wind back online, which is why we’re asking the Court to put a stop to this in short order,” said Attorney General Neronha. “In the few weeks since the stop work order was issued, without warning or reason, Rhode Islanders have been harmed, facing daily uncertainty. We have heard difficult stories from union workers who are out of a job, and from businesses who are now reluctant to pursue economic ventures due to the uncertainty created by this Administration’s decision. Further, Rhode Islanders continue to bear the brunt of the rising and increasingly unstable energy costs and environmental harms associated with fossil fuels. In this case, we need relief now for the benefit of Rhode Island, its workers, and its residents. And time is of the essence.”
“Connecticut families and Connecticut workers need Revolution Wind back on track—today,” said Attorney General Tong. “Every day that Revolution Wind sits mothballed in the ocean is another day of unemployment, another day of unaffordable energy costs, and another day burning fossil fuels when clean, affordable, American-made energy is within our sights. We’re asking the court to step in right now, to recognize the irreparable and immediate harm we are suffering, and to stop the Trump Administration’s impulsive and lawless overreach.”
As stated in the motion, immediate injunctive relief is necessary to avert the imminent and irreparable harm the stop order will impose on Rhode Island and Connecticut. Due to the ongoing work stoppage, constraints including contractual deadlines, weather, and cost imperil the Revolution Wind project. With a targeted completion date of November 2026, Revolution Wind must begin operating before key deadlines pass to fulfill its obligations to the utility companies in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The first deadline is December 31, 2026, at which point Revolution Wind must begin generating power. While the stop work order has remained in place for nearly four weeks, delays push the project close to missing critical deadlines. Relief at the end of this case, which could take years, would not be sufficient to ensure that Revolution Wind meets its obligations.
Background
Located fifteen nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Revolution Wind is a wind energy facility expected to deliver enough electricity to the New England grid to power approximately 350,000 homes, or 2.5 percent of the region’s electricity supply, beginning in 2026. Revolution Wind is projected to save Connecticut and Rhode Island ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years.
Energy produced by Revolution Wind is an integral component of Rhode Island’s strategy to meet statutory climate action mandates set by the General Assembly, for which there is no readily available alternative. The stop work order will also cause immediate and irreversible harmful impacts on the states, including lost jobs, wasted state resources, reduced future grid reliability, higher electric rates, more air pollution, more greenhouse gas emissions, and business uncertainty.
The complaint against the Department of the Interior, BOEM, and their appointed leaders alleges that such arbitrary and capricious government conduct violates both the Administrative Procedure Act and the government’s authority under OCSLA. Both laws “demand reasoned decision-making, fidelity to statutory limits, and respect for the settled expectations of sovereign States and regulated parties.”
Assistant Attorney General Sarah Rice, Solicitor General Katherine Sadeck, and Special Assistant Attorneys General Nicholas Vaz, Alex Carnevale, and Leonard Giarrano are staffing this litigation for the Attorney General.
Speaker Shekarchi and Senate President Lawson statement on the Revolution Wind lawsuit
“We applaud the lawsuit filed today by Attorney General Peter Neronha to overturn President Trump’s unjustified stop-work order of the Revolution Wind project that is 80 percent completed. This endeavor supports thousands of good-paying private sector Rhode Island jobs and is expected to deliver enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes in New England. This infusion of new power is important to address energy affordability and costs for Rhode Island consumers. This project is essential for our economy, the environment, and the affordability of our energy supply, and we wholeheartedly support today’s legal action.”