Ørsted to Challenge US Stop-Work Order for Another Offshore Wind Project
January 7, 2026
Ørsted will file a complaint and seek a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging U.S. government’s lease suspension order issued for the Sunrise Wind offshore wind project, after it instigated similar legal action earlier for the Revolution Wind project.
Ørsted is challenging the lease suspension order issued on December 22, 2025 by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which will be followed by a motion for a preliminary injunction.
The company launched similar legal action against the suspension earlier in January for the Revolution Wind project, being developed as part of the 50-50 joint venture with Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables.
For the Sunrise Wind offshore wind project, Ørsted said said litigation was necessary to protect the project’s rights, while it continues to seek a constructive resolution with the administration and other stakeholders.
Before the suspension, Sunrise Wind said had secured all required local, state and federal permits following extensive multi-year reviews, including years-long consultations with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse.
Those consultations resulted in a formal agreement between the Department of War, the Department of the Air Force and Sunrise Wind outlining mitigation measures.
The company said it has spent and committed billions of dollars in reliance on the completed review process and has received approvals from multiple federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The project is in an advanced stage of construction and is nearly 45% complete. It has installed 44 of 84 monopile foundations and the offshore converter station, while construction of onshore electrical infrastructure is substantially complete and near-shore export cables have been installed. At the time of the lease suspension order, the project was expected to begin generating power as early as October 2026.
Once fully operational in 2027, Sunrise Wind is expected to deliver electricity to nearly 600,000 homes under a 25-year contract with the State of New York, Ørsted said.
The project has supported thousands of jobs across construction, operations, shipbuilding and manufacturing, including more than 1,000 union workers who have contributed more than 1 million union work hours.
