(Reuters) -The developer of a major U.S. offshore wind project warned that it will cancel the Empire Wind facility off the coast of New York if it cannot in the coming days reach a resolution over a month-old stop-work order issued by the Trump administration.
Molly Morris, president of the U.S. renewable energy arm of Norway’s Equinor, said the company was spending $50 million a week to keep the project afloat.
"The situation is now unsustainable," Morris said in an interview.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered Equinor to halt construction on the project on April 17, saying information suggested the administration of former President Joe Biden may have approved it without a thorough environmental analysis.
President Donald Trump has directed his administration to speed approvals for energy projects to meet soaring U.S. demand. On Monday the Interior Department said it would perform an environmental review for a Utah uranium mine in just two weeks.
Wind, however, is excluded from that effort. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office pausing new leasing and permitting of wind projects, which he says are ugly, expensive and harmful to wildlife.
Equinor’s Morris said the stop-work order stemmed from a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the Commerce Department, but that the company had not seen the report and was not aware of the specific concerns it had raised.
NOAA assists the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in permitting offshore wind projects by assessing impacts on marine mammals and fisheries.
Interior Department officials were not immediately available for comment. A NOAA spokesperson declined to comment.
Equinor has 11 vessels with 100 workers on board sitting on the water waiting for an order to resume work, Morris said.
The company has already invested $2.7 billion in the project.