US Wind, facing ‘existential threat’ from Trump, seeks order allowing Ocean City wind project

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Citing an “existential threat” from the Trump administration, US Wind is asking a judge for an order allowing it to proceed with its long-planned wind farm off the coast of Ocean City.

The Baltimore-based company last week said the government’s efforts to stop the Ocean City wind farm — and other renewable energy projects nationwide — could force it into bankruptcy.

“The loss of its primary federal permit constitutes an existential risk for US Wind, as the Project cannot be built without it,” the company argued in a motion last week.

“And continued efforts to undermine it will have catastrophic consequences, preventing the company from fulfilling contractual obligations attendant to the construction of the Project, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in Project investments and ultimately killing the Project altogether.”

US Wind is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Ocean City and a coalition representing the tourism and fishing industries, among others, who oppose the project. They sued the U.S. Department of the Interior last October in Maryland federal court after it granted final approval.

But last month, the government asked the court to vacate the Construction and Operations Plan and remand it back to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. It argued that if the court vacates the plan, Ocean City’s claims will be moot and its lawsuit should be dismissed.

“BOEM’s desire to reconsider its prior approval is reason alone to grant a remand,” the government’s September motion stated. It added that the approval should be vacated because the bureau “identified an error in the weighing of certain statutory factors that led to the prior approval.”

The company refers to this as a final “Revocation Decision” and says it is illegal because the permit can’t be revoked. It filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on Oct. 15 seeking to preserve the status quo.

The government has “suddenly changed course,” US Wind argues, “with the inevitable and intended effect of killing the Project.”

US Wind cites repeated anti-wind energy statements by President Donald Trump and other government officials in justifying the argument that the government’s motion to vacate is a final decision to end the project.

Trump has said “I hate wind” and posted online that wind is “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!”

His administration has also taken direct action to undermine the Ocean City wind farm. The U.S. Department of Transportation in August called wind projects “doomed” and withdrew over $47 million for a steel manufacturing facility at Sparrows Point, in Baltimore County, which is contributing to the project.

US Wind says the approval was binding, and argues the government is violating the Fifth Amendment right to due process, the Administrative Procedure Act and a number of environmental laws. It says the government’s approvals will withstand judicial review, while the revocation will not.

Strict limitations on project cancellations, US Wind argues, reflect one of the principal goals of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which says that such areas “should be made available for expeditious and orderly development.”

If the permit is revoked, investors could declare the company to be in default or refuse to extend additional financing.

“Such a default could force US Wind into bankruptcy,” the motion states. “It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the preservation of (Construction and Operations Plan) approval is existential for both the Project and US Wind.”

The company says it has invested more than $320 million into the project, which would generate enough electricity to power more than 718,000 homes. It would include up to 121 wind turbine generators between 11 and 26 miles off the coast of Maryland, up to four offshore substations, a meteorological tower, and up to four export cables into onshore substations in Delaware.