Danish renewable energy operator Ørsted and Norwegian energy firm Equinor are taking the Trump administration to court in two separately filed lawsuits. In each case, the companies are seeking preliminary injunctions against notices received by their offshore wind energy projects.
Ørsted’s legal actions follow a December 2025 lease suspension order for Revolution Wind LLC – a joint venture with Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables. The order was issued by the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
On 1 January 2026, Revolution Wind filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking a preliminary injunction against BOEM’s directives.
“The project faces substantial harm from a continuation of the lease suspension order. As a result, litigation is a necessary step to protect the rights of the project”, Ørsted said in a statement.
The August 2025, BOEM had issued a stop work order for the same project. Its timing drew investor criticism, given that the project was 80% complete and had received all required regulatory approvals in 2023.
“As investors, we are used to accounting for risk, but Trump’s apparent hostility towards offshore wind is different, because we cannot discern any underlying logic”, AkademikerPension CIO Anders Schelde said at the time.
Equinor’s experience and response mirrors Ørsted’s. Its offshore wind project – Empire Wind – is over 60% complete. It too received a stop work order from BOEM in December 2025.
Empire Wind LLC has now filed a civil lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction against BOEM in the same court that will host Ørsted’s proceedings.
In a statement explaining its response, the company said the order has a potentially ‘significant impact’ on the project.
“The preliminary injunction filing is necessary to allow the project to continue as planned during this critical period of execution and avoid additional commercial and financing impacts that are likely to occur should the order remain effective”, the statement reads.
Equinor has thus far invested over $4bn in the project, including $2.7bn of project financing.
