The last time about the Empire Wind project off the New York-New Jersey Coast, the Trump administration had ordered an immediate halt to its construction after work continued on this monstrosity despite the presidential executive order.
Recently, several citizen groups and firms that opposed the project [Save Long Beach Island, Inc. (Save LBI), Save the East Coast, Protect Our Coast Long Island-New York, and the Miss Belmar whale watching company] filed a federal lawsuit in the District of New Jersey. The lawsuit challenges the federal approvals granted for the Empire Wind offshore wind project, which is located off Long Branch, New Jersey, and Long Beach, New York.
These organizations claim that U.S. government agencies broke environmental laws by approving the Empire Wind offshore wind project without properly protecting marine mammals or fully studying the environmental impacts..
The main issue is that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) gave Empire Wind permission through what’s called an Incidental Take Authorization (ITA) to disturb or harm thousands of marine mammals during the project. This includes more than 30% of a specific dolphin population each year, which the lawsuit says is far more than the law allows under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The plaintiffs argue this level of harm is both illegal and dangerous for the species.
Authorizing the Take of nearly one-third of a protected dolphin population in a single year, and the majority of that population over the course of the project’s 5-year period, is not just illegal, it’s ecologically reckless,” said Dr. Robert Stern, President of Save LBI. “This lawsuit is about enforcing the scientific and legal limits of takes to ensure marine mammals don’t become collateral damage in the senseless rush to industrialize the ocean,” said Dr. Stern.The plaintiffs also allege that BOEM’s Environmental Impact Statement for Empire Wind violated NEPA by failing to consider a meaningful range of project alternatives, underestimating the environmental harm of the project, and all the while failing to fully account for the cumulative impacts of other offshore wind projects…….The lawsuit requests that the Court vacate the project’s ITA, Record of Decision, and Construction and Operations Plan, and require the agencies to reanalyze the project in full compliance with the law.Dr. Stern also points out that, “this lawsuit is relevant to the one that was recently filed by 17 States claiming no legal basis existed to halt the Empire Wind 1 Project because it provides substantive legal reasons to do so. The lawsuit is also pertinent to the Critical Habitat Petition that Save LBI filed on March 31, 2025 with the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior Departments to create a safe turbine-free corridor along the East Coast for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale to migrate.The Empire Wind 1 project sits right in the recommended corridor, so this lawsuit would keep that corridor viable while the Agency reviews the petition.”
As Stern noted, attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration, challenging the halt to ill-considered green-energy projects, including offshore wind farms.
Laughably, Letitia James is leading the charge.
They say Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally shut down the permitting process, and he’s jeopardizing development of a power source critical to the states’ economic vitality, energy mix, public health and climate goals.They’re asking a federal judge to declare the order unlawful and stop federal agencies from implementing it.”This arbitrary and unnecessary directive threatens the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments, and it is delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the coalition, said in a statement.
It must be noted that this week, a whale carcass was spotted off Block Island, and another washed up near Bold Point Park in Rhode Island.
Hopefully, good science, sound environmental policy, and wise allocation of resources related to energy production will prevail before many more whales wash ashore dead.
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