Trump Admin. Lifts Stop-Work Order, Allows Empire Wind Farm Off NJ To Proceed

LONG BRANCH, NJ — In a reversal, the Trump administration on Monday lifted a stop-work order it placed on a Jersey Shore wind farm, allowing wind farm construction and turbine building to resume.

Empire Wind 1, owned by Norwegian renewable energy company Equinor, will be 19 miles off Long Branch, a distance that is too far out for turbines to be seen from shore.

On April 16, the U.S. Department of the Interior, now helmed by Trump appointee Doug Burgum, issued a stop-work order to Empire Wind, citing President Trump's ban on all new offshore wind development.

Equinor said it would comply. But the company said it was desperate to resume work it already started, such as undersea installation and building the actual wind turbines, which it already started doing at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

Equinor said halting the work put the $5-billion project at a risk of total collapse. Plans for multiple other wind farms off the Jersey Shore have already collapsed (See here and here.)

Equinor had New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on its side. She argued, successfully, that Empire Wind had already received all the necessary federal permits to begin construction prior to Trump taking office in January.

On Monday evening, Hochul announced here that the Trump administration lifted its stop-work order.

“After countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials, bringing labor and business to the table to emphasize the importance of this project, I’m pleased that President Trump and Secretary Burgum have agreed to lift the stop-work order and allow this project to move forward,” said Hochul. “I want to thank President Trump for his willingness to work with me to save the 1,500 good-paying union jobs that were on the line and helping get this essential project back on track."

Taken directly from Equinor's own website, here is the wind farm work they already started: "The Empire Wind 1 project received its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) approval in February 2024 and began onshore construction at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Spring 2024. Marine activities resumed in Spring 2025, beginning with rock laying in the lease area. This follows years of surveying, engineering, permitting and planning."

What is rock laying?

"Before foundations can be installed, rocks are placed on the seabed to create a stable base and to protect against erosion. The project will place a layer of smaller rocks before foundation installation. A second layer of larger rocks will be placed following installation," Equinor explained here.

Hochul said in April she would "not allow this federal overreach (from Trump) to stand. This fully federally permitted project has already put shovels in the ground before the President’s executive orders."

Equinor CEO Anders Opeda, in a statement on the company website, expressed gratitude towards Hochul "for her constructive collaboration with the Trump administration, without which we would not have been able to advance this project."

Empire Wind was actually supposed to be two wind farms, Empire Wind 1 and 2. But in early 2024, Equinor and partner company British Petroleum announced they were terminating plans to build Empire Wind 2, citing "inflation, interest rates and supply-chain disruptions." The company also said there are "changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale."

Empire Wind will be located in between the Jersey Shore and Long Island, but it is meant to provide electric power to New York state only. Empire Wind 1 has a contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to provide electric power to 500,000 homes on Long Island. The transmission lines will be brought ashore at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

If it gets built, Empire Wind 1 would be New Jersey's largest offshore wind farm to date, taking up a total of 80,000 acres of ocean.

On his first day in office in January, President Trump issued an executive order that put a pause on all U.S. wind farm development. However, Trump's order cannot legally apply to existing wind farm leases and permits that were given before he assumed office for the second time.

RELATED:

• Trump Administration Halts Empire Wind 1, Which Started Construction Off Jersey Shore (April 2025)
• Trump Puts Pause On Wind Farms, Wants Oil/Gas Drilling Off NJ Instead (January 2025)
• BP Terminates Empire Wind 2 Farm; 2nd Jersey Shore Wind Farm Axed (January 2024)

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