Governors celebrate Revolution Wind legal victory, but did the Trump Administration already get what it wanted?

“I’m … doing everything we can to get not just wind and solar power, but also what we can do in terms of natural gas and nuclear power,” said Governor Lamont. Governor McKee agreed.

“It’s a really good day for our entire region and what it means in terms of energy prices. You know why? Jimmy Kimmel is back, and Revolution Wind is back, and let me tell you what that means: That means jobs,” said Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, speaking from the City Pier in New London. Along with him was Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee, and behind them were dozens of building trades workers and, further back, a loading platform full of parts for offshore windmills.

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Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an injunction that will allow the project to go forward, despite President Donald Trump’s unconscionable stop-work order halting construction on Revolution Wind - a multibillion dollar offshore wind development that is 80% complete (with 506 megawatts installed of the 704 megawatt system) and critical to the region’s economy and energy future. The Trump administration’s effort to abruptly halt the project threatens thousands of local jobs, jeopardizes hundreds of millions of dollars in economic investment, and would increase electricity prices and impact grid reliability across New England. (See: "This is bullshit." Labor & political leaders oppose Trump’s Revolution Wind stop-work order)

Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, was not subtle. “Judge Lambeth resoundingly rejected the government’s position and issued an amazing order,” noted Connecticut Representative Joseph Courtney, speaking at the press conference. The decision “is less than one page long, but he overturned and enjoined the stop work order. He also enjoined any enforcement of the halt work order, and made it clear that no stay was being put on his decision. A lot of the federal district court judges who have ruled against executive orders over the last eight months have stayed their rulings against the administration, but not in this case.” Though the Trump Administration has the right to appeal the ruling, the burden of proof is on the Department of the Interior, not the builder, Ørsted, who brought the case, or Rhode Island and Connecticut, who brought a separate case still awaiting a decision.

The Rhode Island Congressional Delegation issued a statement saying that, “The Interior Department has provided no clear argument for its stop-work order on the project. Our delegation stands united in urging the Administration to allow this project to proceed without further delay.”

“Today’s legal victory in Washington, D.C. reaffirms what we know to be true: this President cannot cancel clean energy projects just because he believes doing so is politically expedient for him,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. “Indeed, the outcome here bodes well for our case in Rhode Island. Judge Lamberth’s decision to grant Ørsted’s motion aligns with our argument that this Administration’s attempt to undermine the clean energy industry while eliminating thousands of union jobs is both arbitrary and capricious – in simpler terms, it came without warning, reason, or legal basis. Today’s win is fantastic news for Rhode Island workers and families who want stability in energy costs and less reliance on fossil fuels. We look forward to moving forward with our case.”

As important as Revolution Wind is to our clean energy future, it is also an important job creator for Rhode Island and Connecticut. “Today, workers in Rhode Island are celebrating an initial decision allowing Revolution Wind, a nearly-completed offshore wind project, to move forward with construction after the federal government issued a reckless stop-work order last month,” wrote Climate Jobs RI, a coalition of labor and environmental groups advocating for a just transition to a pro-worker and pro-climate green economy in Rhode Island. “This means that the over 1,000 union workers who were forced into a state of limbo for almost a full month can now breathe a sigh of relief and return to work on the final stretch of this project, which will deliver clean, domestic, and reliable energy to 350,000 households in Rhode Island and Connecticut. With energy demand and utility bills rising nationwide, it’s critical that we get more offshore wind built and reject the politicization of job-creating, cost-lowering energy projects like Revolution Wind.”

“This ruling confirms what we’ve known all along - that the Trump Administration’s attempt to stop Revolution Wind is not only a violation of the law but a dramatic overreach,” said Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at Conservation Law Foundation (CLF). “The court’s decision restores momentum toward bringing clean, local power to New England, strengthening our energy security, and supporting thousands of jobs across the region. We applaud the court for upholding the rule of law and rejecting a reckless attempt to sabotage clean energy progress that will slash bills and toxic pollution.”

Celebrations by environmental groups may be short-lived, and the Trump Administration may have already gotten what they were looking for. “We’re working very closely with the Trump administration,” said Governor Lamont, who, alongside Governor McKee, has been in dialogue with Trump’s Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright, a former fossil fuel executive. “We’re doing … what we can do to add additional energy across our region. That’s ‘all of the above’ from my point of view. I’m talking to the Secretary of Energy, I’m talking to the Secretary of Interior, doing everything we can to get not just wind power, solar power, but also what we can do in terms of natural gas, what we can do in terms of nuclear power.”

Governor McKee agreed. “We don’t have a gas line, but I’m with Governor Lamont. We’ll open up those conversations to make that happen for an all-in strategy. We have a great backyard called the Atlantic Ocean, and we will use it.” [Note: Governor McKee is seemingly unaware of the gas pipeline that runs through Burrillville in the northwest corner of Rhode Island, or the natural gas pipeline that terminates in the Port of Providence and famously exploded in 2017.] In a statement, Governor McKee was clearer. “Increasing our energy supply options is essential to lowering long-term costs. That’s why my administration supports an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes offshore wind, nuclear power, natural gas, and hydropower. This approach diversifies our energy portfolio and keeps our energy system reliable.”

Environmentalist Bill McKibben criticized the “all in” or “all of the above” strategy, saying that the strategy doesn’t strike him as a “particularly intellectually serious strategy… Saying we’re going to do a lot of oil drilling, open up every coal seam we can find, and we’ll have some solar panels, doesn’t engage, really, with the physics and chemistry of climate change.”