04/24/2025
The wind farm is Empire Wind 1, owned by Norwegian renewable energy company Equinor. In 2017, Empire Wind received a permit to build a wind farm 19 miles off Long Branch, a distance that is too far out for turbines to be visible from shore.
Equinor said on its website it will comply with the stop-work order, but it may file a lawsuit against the U.S. government.
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. While Trump's order does not affect existing wind farm leases that were already issued, it does call for the U.S. Department of the Interior to do "a review of the necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for removal."
Equinor moved ahead with construction
