Fishing groups sue over federal restart of Empire Wind project off Long Island

A contingent of mostly commercial fishing groups on Tuesday filed suit against the Trump administration and energy giant, Equinor, saying the federal government failed to undergo the proper process in recently restarting construction of the Empire Wind project off Long Island.

The groups, which include commercial fishing interests from Long Island, New Jersey and Rhode Island, are seeking an immediate court-ordered injunction to overturn the U.S. interior secretary’s recent decision that allowed construction to restart last week after his April stop-work order which was issued on environmental grounds.

"It’s do or die at this point," said Bonnie Brady, executive director for the Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, one of the plaintiffs. "We’re having our fishing grounds systematically taken from us by foreign governments and private equity," the backers of offshore wind projects. "We have to fight back or die."

The lawsuit follows Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s decision last month to allow construction of the 54-turbine Empire Wind project to restart 14 miles off Long Island, after halting construction in April. The project has already received all needed federal and state permits when Burgum first issued a stop-work order citing a rushed environmental review under the Biden administration. Developer Equinor, of Norway, had threatened to terminate the project as its losses mounted while the project sat idle for more than a month.

Victoria Peabody, a spokeswoman for Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said the agency’s policy is not to comment on litigation.

Equinor declined to comment on the lawsuit, but noted that it signed the federal lease for Empire Wind in 2017 and the project “has undergone years of rigorous permitting and studies, and secured all necessary federal, state and local approvals to begin construction in 2024.”

The suit also names as defendants the United States and Norway, saying the latter country, as the "controlling owner of Equinor and all of its affiliates, is not entitled or eligible for a lease in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf as it is the agency or instrumentality of a foreign government."

The suit lists John Peterson, the mayor of Seaside Park, New Jersey, as a plaintiff, noting he’s an advocate for fishing interests in his fishing community. Conservation groups also joined the suit.

In their suit, the plaintiffs argue that Burgum and the federal government, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, violated the Administrative Procedure Act by "failing to offer a factual basis for the reinstatement," which it called "arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable."

The suit cited President Donald Trump’s executive order on wind power signed in the earliest days of his administration, saying he "identified a need for further investigation and review" for wind projects. The suit alleges that federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "have identified significant ecological harm that will flow from the turbine construction and operation, harm that cannot be remediated and that will permanently injure the ecology and the ecosystem of the waters known as the New York Bight."

The suit calls Burgum’s original stop-work order "properly grounded" and charged that the May 19 reinstatement of work was made "without any identification of a factual basis."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.