The Trump administration is considering withdrawing the permit for a planned 141-turbine SouthCoast Wind project off Nantucket.
The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing that the Department of the Interior plans to pull the project’s permit. The permit was approved on the last day of the Biden presidency.
The 2.4GW project has been in court since March, when Nantucket filed an appeal in a federal court. The town claimed the project permit was not properly awarded and that it would negatively impact the town’s economy, which relies on tourism.
According to the DOJ, it is looking to pause that procedure and first address the permit review. The Department said that a deferral is needed “because Interior intends to reconsider its construction and operations plan approval and will therefore be moving for a voluntary remand of that agency action by September 18, 2025″.
The outcome of Interior’s reconsideration of SouthCoast Wind’s construction and operations plan could affect the claims made by the town of Nantucket.
The DOJ said that litigation in the interim “makes little sense” and that pausing the proceedings would “conserve judicial resources.”
SouthCoast Wind and its attorneys responded to this motion by the Interior. They claimed that the motion is “indicative of a pattern of unreasonable delays designed to further the political agenda of the current administration”.
“This delay and the forthcoming request for remand are simply a pretext for the unabashed desire of the president to eliminate all offshore wind projects from existence regardless of their impacts,” the project attorneys said.
