DOJ Targets a Fourth Offshore Wind Permit

Revolution Wind installed its final turbine in September. On 9 October, the Justice Department and the Interior Department asked a federal court for summary judgment that would send the farm's approval back to Interior for review, OffshoreWIND.biz reported. The permit in question belongs to a project that has since been built and is about to be commissioned.

Late Tuesday, the department reached for another one. In a court filing, it said it wanted to reopen the permit for New England Wind off Massachusetts, the fourth project the administration has targeted in recent weeks, per a Politico report carried on Yahoo News. On Wednesday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a lead Democratic negotiator on the Senate's permitting bill, said the campaign is jeopardizing the bipartisan deal to overhaul approvals for major infrastructure. "This is how you blow up a permitting deal.," he told POLITICO.

A narrow ask with a wide shadow

The filing is technically modest. DOJ asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to "remand, without vacatur," the permit, and said Interior must reevaluate its compliance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. "Upon remand, Interior would make a new decision regarding the COP." DOJ wrote. Remand without vacatur leaves the approval standing while the agency reconsiders.

But "standing" is doing a lot of work. The New Bedford Light reports that Avangrid's attorneys have told the court a remand would threaten the project with "extinction." New England Wind 1 and 2 would total up to 2,600 megawatts and power 900,000 homes in Massachusetts, according to the Light's tracker, which lists the project as fully permitted at the federal level. It still needs a finalized power purchase agreement with Massachusetts utilities, a deal the Light says has been delayed several times by uncertainty the Trump administration created. A permit that Interior may rewrite is a hard thing to finance against.

A request with a history

This is not the first attempt. OffshoreWIND.biz reported on Dec. 3, 2025 that DOJ had already asked the D.C. court to remand the approval to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which was reconsidering the July 2024 approval of the project's Construction and Operations Plan. BOEM said its earlier decision "may have failed to account for all the impacts" required under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The project's two phases have a combined planned capacity of more than 2 GW.

That request landed in a case brought by ACK for Whales, Green Oceans, charter fishing groups and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), who sued in May 2025 asking the court to vacate the approvals. The National Law Review reports that the government relied solely on the Zerzan M-Opinion, and that on April 24, 2026 the court held the motion in abeyance. That ruling followed a decision from Judge Denise Casper of the District of Massachusetts, who blocked a series of agency actions that had stalled wind and solar developments nationwide. Her opinion leans heavily on a December 2025 ruling that the government has appealed to the First Circuit, and the National Law Review says that appeal may affect how durable her opinion proves.

A pattern, not a one-off

Revolution Wind, a 704-megawatt farm already operating off Rhode Island, came first. DOJ then sought remands for Atlantic Shores off New Jersey and Maryland Offshore Wind, neither of which has started construction. In Maryland, OffshoreWIND.biz reports, the motion cited commercial fisheries, scientific research, coastal views and protected species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The administration also sought remand and vacatur of the SouthCoast Wind approval.

The administration has tried stop-work orders, a permitting review and lease buybacks since taking office in 2025, The Maritime Executive reported. Courts have enjoined the stop-work orders, ruled the indefinite review violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and shown skepticism toward undefined national security claims. The New Bedford Light notes that a judge overturned Trump's wind memo in December 2025, only for the administration to go after the leases of all five under-construction projects days later. Federal judges allowed all five to continue.

Remand is a different tool, and The Maritime Executive says the courts must now decide whether the administration can reopen approvals while developers argue they spent years in review before winning them.

The permitting deal in the crossfire

Senate Democrats and Republicans proposed the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 earlier this month. It would ease permitting for transmission lines and make the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act changes Republicans want. Jarrod Agen, head of the National Energy Dominance Council, tweeted last week that the White House still supports permitting reform. A White House official defended the new filings, saying: "Our filings defend the current government's litigating position."

An anonymous industry source with ties to the White House gave POLITICO a different account last week: the administration wants leverage over Democrats in the talks. "You don't want to be the guy who derailed permitting reform." the source said.

The offshore wind industry's own trade voices point the same way, from opposite sides. Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said the second-guessing of approvals that have already cleared lengthy review is why Congress must pass permitting reform. Hillary Bright of Turn Forward said the lack of safeguards makes it harder to find long-term investors. If the bill is meant to make approvals durable, the administration is demonstrating the need for it while threatening to sink it.

New Bedford waits

The stakes are physical in New Bedford. New England Wind plans to house its long-term operations and maintenance hub there, and, contingent on the project moving forward, Danish company Liftra plans a crane factory. The Light reports the city's once-bustling terminal is empty again, and will stay that way for a few years, if not longer. Whether it fills depends on a permit that is now back on a federal docket.