Vineyard Wind has been cleared to resume construction after a federal judge in Boston granted a stay against the U.S. administration’s lease suspension and construction pause imposed on Dec. 22, 2025.
District Court Judge Murphy said the government order was “likely arbitrary and capricious”, adding that the issues raised by the administration related to wind farm operations rather than construction. He said continuing the suspension would cause irreparable harm to the project and its developers, while the administration had cited undisclosed “national security concerns” linked to a classified Department of War study.
Vineyard Wind, which is owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola, is about 95% complete and is expected to provide around 800 megawatts of power to Massachusetts once fully operational.
More than 30 vessels are currently supporting construction of the project, with ships built or retrofitted by shipyards in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Virginia, according to a statement.
Oceantic Network chief executive Liz Burdock said the project was essential to regional energy security.
“Vineyard Wind is critical to securing not only Massachusetts’ electric grid, but the regional grid serving millions of residents that depend on the continued, reliable delivery of electricity, especially during these cold winter months,” Burdock said.
She added that offshore wind helps stabilise winter energy prices by reducing reliance on peaker plants, which can drive up costs for households.
The ruling follows earlier court decisions allowing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Empire Wind and Revolution Wind to resume work after judges granted injunctions against the administration’s December suspension order. Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project remains paused, with a hearing scheduled for Feb. 2.
Industry group Oceantic said the five projects affected by the original pause would deliver about 5.8 gigawatts of capacity, enough to power roughly 2.5 million homes once operational. It added that halting the projects had frozen about $30 billion in economic activity and put more than $11 billion of supply chain assets at risk.
