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[NOTE: This article was updated on 27 and 28 August with statements from Oceantic Network and US Wind.]
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The US Department of the Interior (DOI) will seek to cancel its approval of the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) granted to US Wind for its 2 GW Maryland Offshore Wind Project last year. In a recent court filing in Delaware, it emerged that the DOI plans to move to vacate the federal approval for the project through a legal proceeding in Maryland.
In a statement to offshoreWIND.biz , Nancy Sopko , VP of External Affairs for US Wind, said: “Our construction and operations plan approval is the subject of ongoing litigation, but we remain confident that the federal permits we secured after a multi-year and rigorous public review process are legally sound.”
A spokesperson from the US offshore renewable energy organisation, Oceantic Network, said: “US Wind received their federal permits after more than four years of thorough environmental and agency review; it is legally sound. Once completed, the Maryland project and Sparrows Point Steel will enhance our national security and economic freedom by directly supporting steel mill investments and bring back important steel fabrication capabilities to America.”
US Wind acquired an 80,000-acre federal lease area off the coast of Maryland in 2014. The Maryland Offshore Wind Project consists of three planned phases. Two phases, known as MarWin and Momentum Wind, already have offshore renewable energy certificates (ORECs) from the State of Maryland.
In September last year, the DOI, through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), authorised the 2 GW Maryland Offshore Wind Project and approved its COP in December 2024 .
In a court filing on 22 August as part of a lawsuit in Delaware, where a homeowner initiated legal action against the DOI’s decision to approve the COP, the DOI requested that the district court suspend the case, as the Department is now looking to vacate the decision in a separate, but related, case in Maryland, where the DOI is also a defendant.
In Maryland, the DOI, along with BOEM and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), is being sued for approving the COP for US Wind’s project by the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City.
The DOI “intends to move to voluntarily remand and vacate its approval” of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project COP in the Maryland case, which would then make the claims filed by the plaintiff in Delaware moot, according to the DOI’s motion to stay the case in Delaware.
According to the filing, the DOI plans to submit a motion for remand of the COP approval to the district court in Maryland by 12 September.
“Interior now intends to reevaluate under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) its decision to approve the COP and, as a result, will be moving no later than September 12 in the Maryland Action for remand of that prior COP approval. If Interior’s motion is granted, the agency action that Plaintiff challenges will be vacated, and thus his claims will be entirely moot. And even if Interior’s motion is denied, the agency’s reconsideration of the COP will likely result in significant changes that will impact the positions and arguments of the parties here”, the DOI stated in the motion to stay the case in Delaware.
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The DOI revealing its plan to reevaluate the COP under the OCSLA comes around the same time as the Department issued a stop-work order for the Revolution Wind project offshore Connecticut and Rhode Island, which also refers to the OCSLA.
Both decisions follow the Presidential Memorandum issued on 20 January 2025 and the Interior Secretary’s Order (SO) 3437 from 29 July, Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign Controlled Energy Sources in Department Decision-Making , which specifically refers to OCSLA.
Shortly after the Secretary’s Order last month, BOEM rescinded and de-designated all Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) on the US Outer Continental Shelf.
The Secretary’s Order states, among other things, that the previous leadership at the DOI misapplied section 8(p)(4) of the OCSLA, 43 U.S.C. § 1337(p)(4), which refers to “interference with reasonable uses (as determined by the Secretary) of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas.”
In the order halting all ongoing Revolution Wind-related activities on the OCS on 22 August, BOEM said the activities are to be paused for a review that was particularly focused on addressing “concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas” , as described in the OCSLA.
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about 11 months ago
[NOTE: This article was updated on 27 and 28 August with statements from Oceantic Network and US Wind.] The US Department of the Interior (DOI) will seek to cancel its approval of the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) granted to US Wind for its 2 GW Maryland Offshore Wind Project last year. In
