Justice Department Asks Court to Send New England Wind Permit Back to Interior for Review

The Justice Department told a federal court on Tuesday that a major federal permit for the New England Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts should be sent back to the Interior Department so the agency can issue a new decision.

The government's court filing targets 2,600-megawatt Massachusetts wind farm

The move makes the project the fourth offshore wind farm the Trump administration has sought to target in recent months through the courts and agency actions. The permit at issue is the "construction and operations plan" for New England Wind, which was approved in 2024 during the Biden administration.

In its filing, the Justice Department argued that the plan should be reconsidered because it was approved despite major adverse impacts. The project's developer, Avangrid, declined to comment on Wednesday, and construction on the wind farm has not begun.

The lawsuit behind the remand request

The federal approval for New England Wind has been challenged in the District Court for the District of Columbia by ACK for Whales, a group of Nantucket, Massachusetts, residents who say they are concerned about the negative impacts of offshore wind development.

Their lawsuit contends that the federal government failed to comply with numerous statutes. In a motion filed Tuesday, the federal defendants in the case stated that remand of the permit is warranted so that Interior can make a new decision.

The government had already told the court in 2025 that it wanted to reconsider the project's approval. Interior said Wednesday that the latest filing complied with a briefing schedule and did not announce a policy change, adding that its position on offshore wind has remained consistent throughout the administration.

Scope of the New England Wind Project

The plans for New England Wind call for up to 129 wind turbines capable of supplying as much as 2,600 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power more than 900,000 homes each year. Avangrid also built Vineyard Wind off the Massachusetts coast in a joint venture with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Construction on Vineyard Wind finished in March, making it the first project to reach that stage during Trump's time in office. Vineyard Wind was among the projects the administration tried to halt, citing national security concerns.

A pattern of permit challenges across the East Coast

The administration is pursuing the reconsideration of permits for several other projects. Interior also wants to revisit its prior approval of the construction and operations plan for Revolution Wind, a wind farm serving Rhode Island and Connecticut that has finished construction, as well as the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which has not begun construction. In August, a judge granted the administration's request to reconsider the permit for Atlantic Shores, a stalled New Jersey project that was halted soon after Trump returned to office after co-owner Shell walked away from it.

Last year, a federal judge also said the administration could reconsider the permit granted to SouthCoast Wind, another Massachusetts project, days before the president's inauguration. More broadly, the Trump administration is using executive orders, agency actions and the courts to try to stop offshore wind development, an industry that President Donald Trump has attacked as "ugly" and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. The administration began buying back offshore wind leases after federal judges blocked its efforts to stop construction on five major East Coast projects.

Lawmakers and industry groups respond

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, warned that the administration risks derailing a legislative effort to speed up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects. The Senate reached a bipartisan deal on a permitting bill in September, which has not yet been voted on. "This is how you blow up a permitting deal," Whitehouse said in a statement Wednesday.

Pasha Feinberg, an offshore wind strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the administration's attacks on offshore wind are escalating at a time when Americans are struggling with surging utility bills.

The National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore industries including oil and wind, said it is concerned about the uncertainty created by reopening federal approvals for offshore energy projects, particularly those already under construction or in operation.