Trump Thirst to Kill Offshore Wind Gets “Reckt” As Judge Unpauses Dominions $11B Project…

Trump is punching air (literally)... 

Dominion Energy just got the green light to restart its $11 billion wind project off Virginia after the Trump administration tried to hit it with a stop-work order over “national security concerns.” And yes, that phrase is doing a lot of work right now.

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, a federal judge basically told the Interior Department that they can’t just yell “National Security” and expect everyone to sip a fat cup of concrete (read: losses). So now, Dominion can resume construction while the lawsuit keeps going. Keep in mind, this is now the third offshore wind project this week that’s been allowed to restart after getting paused by the government. Orsted got a similar win. Equinor too. 

(Source: Bloomberg) 

That said, Dominions big swingin’ project is girthy to say the least… 176 turbines, expected to power 660,000 homes, with some electricity supposedly coming online in a matter of weeks. And Dominion claims the pause was costing them $5 million per day just in vessel contracts alone. What makes this extra funny (and by funny I mean extremely American) is that Dominion has already spent more than two-thirds of the project’s total cost. So the government basically tried to slam the brakes after the company already paid for the engine, the tires, and the gas.

Even better: Dominion and Stonepeak (which owns 50% of the project) are allegedly sharing around $225 million per month in costs while it’s paused. The spicy part though is that Dominion is arguing the wind project is “essential for national security” because Virginia needs more electricity for the “world’s largest concentration of data centers”... plus a bunch of federal and military facilities, including the Pentagon. Meaning, we’re in the upside-down now. The government says wind turbines are a national security risk, but Dominion says wind turbines are a national security necessity. Meanwhile AI data centers are in the background inhaling electricity like nose beers. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Of course, the Trump administration is still swinging at offshore wind as part of the broader “roll back Biden climate stuff / pump fossil fuels / America First” agenda. They paused five East Coast projects for 90 days back in December. They also tried freezing permits on federal land and oceans on day one… and a judge already ruled that decree was illegal. So we’re literally seeing a Judge Judy courtroom speedrun here. Elsewhere, the industry itself is already beat up. Offshore wind has been eating inflation, supply chain chaos, and now tariff-driven cost spikes. Projects have been delayed, canceled, written down, and generally treated like the redheaded stepchild of energy investing.

So the judge stepping in makes sense. Courts don’t love arbitrary stop orders, especially when the government can’t convincingly explain why the threat is “imminent” now but wasn’t during the permitting process. Naturally, Dominion shares popped a bit on the news because investors love one thing: not lighting $5M/day on fire. So yeah… offshore wind is back. For now. But not because it’s technically “winning”. This is one company getting permission to finish what it already paid for, while the government and developers fight over who gets to define “national security.” Fun times. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.