On February 2, 2026, Sunrise Wind became the fifth and final U.S. offshore wind project affected by the Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) December 22 leasing pause to secure a federal court order allowing construction to resume. All five court orders – which have been issued in the last four weeks – included preliminary injunctions enabling developers to advance project construction while the parties continue to litigate the legality of the government’s attempt to stop construction.

On December 22, 2025, the DOI announced that it was pausing the leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the United States due to “national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently classified reports.” The DOI noted that one such national security risk was “radar interference” but did not further specify dangers.

The following projects were issued with stop-work orders:

• Revolution Wind
• Empire Wind 1
• Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind – Commercial Project
• Vineyard Wind 1
• Sunrise Wind

The developers of each of the five projects promptly sued the federal government in separate actions. Each of the actions claimed that the stop-work orders were arbitrary and capricious, and that each developer would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction.

Revolution Wind’s lawsuit was the first to be heard. On January 12, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Revolution Wind LLC and state plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction of the December 22 pause on Ørsted’s 700-MW project offshore of Rhode Island. Ørsted has since resumed project construction.

Just a few days later, on January 15, Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Empire Leaseholder LLC, Empire Offshore Wind LLC and the State of New York’s request for a preliminary injunction of the December 22 pause on Equinor’s 810-MW project offshore of New York. Equinor has since reported that Empire Wind is back under construction.

On January 16, Judge Jamar K. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion’s request for a preliminary injunction of the December 22 pause on its 2.6-GW project offshore of Virginia. Dominion stated that it would focus on restarting work to ensure that CVOW begins delivering energy in the next weeks. On January 26 it was reported that the first project turbine tower had been installed.

On January 27, Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted Vineyard Wind 1 LLC a preliminary injunction of the December 22 pause on Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid’s 806-MW project offshore of Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind stated that it would focus on safely restarting activities. In its complaint, Vineyard Wind reported that only one wind turbine generator remained to be installed.

On February 2, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Sunrise Wind LLC and the State of New York’s request for a preliminary injunction of the December 22 pause on Ørsted’s 924-MW project offshore of New York. Ørsted announced that the project would resume impacted construction work as soon as possible.

The Department of Justice has yet to indicate whether it will appeal any of the five decisions.