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Editor’s note: This story was updated on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, to clarify the Interior Department’s request to the court.
The Interior Department agency regulating offshore wind development asked a federal judge on Thursday to allow the reconsideration of a key approval for the SouthCoast Wind project — an approval granted by the same agency in January in the final days of the Biden administration.
If the federal government’s request is approved, it could deal another blow to the beleaguered project — which has been delayed at least two years due to the Trump administration — and the industry at large.
This is the second time in a week that the administration has sought a remand of an offshore wind project approval, the other being for Maryland’s US Wind project. It comes just weeks after the Interior Department in court filings expressed its intent to remand not only its approval for SouthCoast Wind, but also New England Wind — two important projects for Massachusetts and New Bedford.
While the January approval, formally termed the Construction and Operations Plan (COP), gave the green light for construction, SouthCoast Wind was still hamstrung by three outstanding federal permits, and no power purchase agreement with Massachusetts or Rhode Island.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management filed the motion as part of a lawsuit brought by the Town of Nantucket in March against BOEM and Interior’s approval of the project, which calls for up to 147 turbines and would sit about 20 miles south of Nantucket (and south of Vineyard Wind).
This latest move illustrates the growing role that lawsuits brought by municipalities and activist groups against offshore wind are playing in President Trump’s crackdown on the industry. Of the 20 or so actions and orders issued since January, one has directed federal attorneys to review pending litigation against projects and consider a remand of permits that the litigation contests.
“BOEM is reviewing its approvals associated with the Project and has determined, based on its review to date, that it wishes to reconsider its COP approval. That is reason enough to grant a remand,” the new motion states.
Nantucket is asking the federal government to “set aside” its record of decision approving SouthCoast Wind and restart its environmental review — a process that took more than three years to complete and culminated in key permits allowing the project to move toward construction.
In Thursday’s filing, the government suggested the town’s concerns (and lawsuit) may become moot: “BOEM likely will take a further agency action, and that action may affect — and possibly moot — Plaintiffs’ claims.”
The motion and a declaration filed by BOEM Deputy Director Matthew Giacona are littered with references to Trump’s day-one wind memo and the subsequent actions that it has borne.
This includes the withdrawal of a 2021 opinion on how the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) should be interpreted, and the reinstatement of an opinion from the first Trump administration on the law. The motion states that BOEM staff are reevaluating all agency decisions that relied on the since-withdrawn 2021 opinion, which also informed the approval of New England Wind.
Under the reinstated opinion, Giacona said, SouthCoast Wind’s COP approval may not be compliant with OCSLA.
“BOEM determined that it ‘may have failed to account for all the impacts that the SouthCoast Wind Project may cause,’” the motion states. “BOEM also found that the Environmental Impact Statement and other record documents may have ‘understated or obfuscated impacts that could have subsequently been improperly weighed in making the determinations.’”
Giacona’s declaration also appears to call into question the lease itself, which SouthCoast Wind paid millions for and has been paying hundreds of thousands in annual payments to the federal government since.
He said the project-wide review, ordered under the day-one wind memo, “could result in identifying potential issues with SouthCoast’s lease” and that the timeline for that review is “uncertain.”
Ocean Winds North America, the project’s parent company, in a statement to The Light said it plans to “vigorously defend our permits in federal court.”
“SouthCoast Wind’s Construction and Operations Plan (COP) was approved … after a rigorous four-year review,” the statement read. “This review reflected an extensive public process that incorporated feedback from federal and state government agencies, commercial ocean users, Tribal Nations, and many other stakeholders. Stable permitting for American infrastructure projects should be of top concern for anyone who wants to see continued investment in the United States.”
SouthCoast Wind is an intervenor in the case and opposed the government’s motion. The project plans to use the Port of New Bedford for staging out of the Marine Commerce Terminal and for long-term operations and maintenance.
Mayor Jon Mitchell previously said a delay or cancellation of New England Wind and SouthCoast Wind could mean a loss of up to 200 jobs in the city.
According to Oceantic Network, an organization supporting the industry, SouthCoast Wind expects to invest $6 billion in the U.S. through wages for union labor; shipbuilding with a Louisiana port and shipbuilder; steel from Alabama and Kentucky; and investments in port infrastructure, including the New Bedford terminal.
Gov. Maura Healey, in an emailed statement Friday, said the project will create “thousands of good-paying jobs” and provide reliable, affordable power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
“This project has been thoroughly vetted and has already undergone years of expert review,” Healey said. “There is absolutely no need for the Trump Administration to reopen permitting processes and deny jobs, investment and energy power to the states.”
Healey’s office did not respond to a question as to whether it plans to intervene.
The request for a remand will be decided by a federal judge.
Per the federal government’s filing, “District courts have broad discretion to grant or deny remands and may deem a remand inappropriate ‘if the agency’s request appears to be frivolous or made in bad faith,’” but it also says courts “commonly” grant them.
As this plays out, more than a dozen states, including Massachusetts, are waiting on a federal judge to rule whether Trump’s first-day wind memo, the action underlying all of this, is unlawful. It’s unclear when that decision will come, and what scope of relief it could provide to the states, which are relying on the projects to meet climate mandates and rising grid demand.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
100% Off Shore Wind should be shut down, the energy return is minimal, to costly, and there are better energy investments available that would help lower our utility bills. But most importantly we should be supporting our fishing industry, protecting our environment, not killing sea life, and destroying our oceans, rivers, bays, inlets, coves, and water ways.
Agree, they seem to be forgetting about our Fishing Industry and our Fishing Port here.
SouthCoast Wind canceled its own contracts.
In 2023, Massachusetts allowed SouthCoast Wind to walk away from the signed PPA contracts. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities required SouthCoast to pay 60 million in termination fees.
Massachusetts allowed new contracts for SouthCoast Wind later in 2023.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued this new offshore agreement, Mass DPU 23-42, on May 31, 2023, over two years ago for SouthCoast Wind. The execution of the Power Purchase Agreement contract negotiations has been extended to November 7, 2024, then to January 15, 2025, and subsequently to March 31, 2025, and then to June 30, 2025.
The Massachusetts DPU has claimed for years that Bay Staters can expect to save on utility bills with offshore wind power. There is very little offshore wind generating power in the Commonwealth, and ratepayers pay 30 percent more than in other parts of the country.
State officials and utilities are omitting facts from the public. In 2017, the 1000-megawatt Brayton Point Coal Plant closed. In 2019, the 680-megawatt Pilgrim Nuclear Plant was shut down. In 2024, the 1400-megawatt natural gas Mystic Generating Station was shut down.
The state has replaced these plants with 100 megawatts of land-based wind power and less than 100 megawatts of offshore wind.
The Massachusetts energy policy is a catastrophic failure—time to go SMR, small safe modular nuclear energy.
Shame on the Department of Public Utilities and their Commissioner’s. They under Maura Healeys directive have allowed Eversource to go up tremendously on delivery charges. Now 60 million dollars to get rid of wind ? Something doesn’t smell right.