Dominion Energy sues federal government over offshore wind farm halt

Dominion Energy has sued the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the U.S. Department of the Interior, seeking to continue work on its offshore wind project after the federal government issued stop-work orders on five wind farms under construction.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, one day after the Trump administration suspended the lease of Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

The Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility seeks a preliminary injunction so it can continue work on the offshore wind farm, which is expected to be complete in late 2026. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia calls the BOEM’s order “arbitrary and capricious,” as well as “procedurally deficient.”

The court set a Dec. 29 hearing on the motion in Norfolk, according to a Christmas Eve order.

In the complaint, Dominion set the total cost of the project at $11.2 billion, an increase from $10.9 billion, cited earlier this year after the utility anticipated tariffs would raise CVOW’s cost. The 2.6-gigawatt project is expected to power 660,000 homes.

Dominion and OSW Project, a limited liability corporation, are suing Secretary of the Interior Douglas Burgum and BOEM’s acting director, Matthew Giacona, along with the departments they head. CVOW, an offshore wind project under construction 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, is one of five offshore wind leases suspended on the East Coast, including Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts, and Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind off New York. According to Dominion, the suspension is for 90 days.

Burgum’s statement Tuesday said that the project leases were being suspended after the Pentagon raised concerns that the movement of huge turbine blades and the highly reflective towers cause radar interference. The resulting “clutter” obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects, it said.

The pause will give relevant federal agencies “time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects,” the department said in a news release.

However, Dominion argues in the lawsuit that the order is “the latest in a series of irrational agency actions attacking offshore wind and then doubling down when those actions are found unlawful.”

President Donald Trump has long excoriated wind energy projects, calling them ugly, costly and inefficient. Since taking office in January, his administration has placed stops on offshore wind projects approved under the Biden administration and already under construction, including Revolution Wind and Empire Wind.

Dominion argues that the federal order is causing “serious, irreparable harm to [Dominion Energy Virginia] and its customers,” the lawsuit says. “All of CVOW’s offshore wind turbine and substation foundations are already in place, construction of other offshore and onshore components is ongoing or complete. There is a strict timeline for remaining CVOW construction activities, and any delay will affect the availability of specialized vessels, equipment and labor.”

The delay caused by the BOEM order, Dominion adds in the complaint, “is imposing extensive costs on [Dominion] and on the electric service customers who will benefit from CVOW.”

Dominion issued a statement this week about the legal action.

“If granted by the court, this will allow the project to resume work,” the statement says. “At the same time, we will work to seek resolution through cooperation with the agencies and the White House, with a focus on achieving a durable solution. CVOW is essential to meeting our customers’ needs. Delaying the project will lead to increased costs for customers and threaten long-term grid reliability. Given the project’s critical importance, we have a responsibility to pursue every available avenue to deliver the project as quickly and at the lowest cost possible on behalf of our customers and the stability of the overall grid.”

The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not respond immediately to requests for comment Friday.

Reuters contributed to this report.