A federal court judge is allowing the Trump administration to reconsider a major federal permit that was granted to a Massachusetts offshore wind farm days before the president’s inauguration.
Developer SouthCoast Wind said Wednesday it’s assessing the decision and next steps, including the pursuit of legal remedies. SouthCoast Wind is a project planned for federal waters about 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Nantucket, with as many as 141 turbines to power about 840,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Construction has not yet begun.
The Trump administration is using executive orders, agency actions and the courts to try to stop the development of offshore wind, an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
Massachusetts has led in offshore wind to meet its goals for clean energy and demand for electricity. The state’s governor said the region needs this power.
“There is absolutely no need for the Trump administration to reopen permitting processes and deny jobs, investment and energy to the states,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.
Nantucket sued the Interior Department in March. The town asked a U.S. District Court judge in Washington to set aside the federal government’s approvals to construct the wind farm, arguing that it will damage the town’s character, community and tourism economy.
The federal defendants filed a motion in September seeking to revoke approval of the project’s “construction and operations plan.” It was the last major federal permit the project needs before it can start putting turbines in the water. The Interior Department said the approval may not have fully complied with the law and may have failed to account for all the project’s impacts.
Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Tuesday that the permit be remanded to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, for reconsideration. She wrote that it was “in the interest of judicial econ