A federal judge rejects a request to halt Dominion’s Virginia Beach offshore wind farm

A federal judge has rejected a request from a coalition of conservative interest groups that sought to stop construction of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm in Virginia Beach.

Earlier this year, groups sued the Biden administration, arguing that federal agencies ignored threats to endangered whales when approving the Coastal Virginia offshore wind project.

The case will continue to be heard this fall, but last week’s decision denied the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to halt construction until the lawsuit is resolved.

U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan found that there was insufficient evidence that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm from continuing construction work.

“Plaintiffs fail to take into account the already extensive measures designed to minimize potential harm to the (North Atlantic) right whale during construction,” AliKhan wrote. “They did not explain why these measures would not be sufficient.”

Scientists have repeatedly said there is no evidence linking any whale deaths to the offshore wind industry.

The CVOW project is planned to include 176 turbines approximately 47 km from the Oceanfront. The company claims it will produce energy that will power up to 660,000 homes.

Dominion received approval to begin construction this month and installed the first monopile on the site last week – two days before AliKhan issued the order. For construction, the company uses a huge support ship called Orion.

“We agree with the Court’s decision,” Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton said in a statement Tuesday.

“The National Marine Fisheries Service conducted a thorough environmental review, and the environmental safeguards we have implemented for CVOW protect the environment and marine wildlife.”

These measures include limiting most construction activities to the period May to October, when the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale is least likely to be around; the use of trained on-site observers to observe passing marine mammals; and the use of sound reduction techniques during pile driving.

When completed in 2026, the Virginia Beach project would be the largest commercial offshore wind farm in the US

The lawsuit challenging it is one of the first on the East Coast to use the Endangered Species Act to test the offshore wind industry, which has faced setbacks in the race to meet demand for renewable energy.

The dispute stems from a coalition including the Heartland Institute and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, which deny human-caused climate change.

Heartland President James Taylor told WHRO last year that he viewed renewable energy as the wrong economic direction for the country.

“We want to protect the (American) standard of living. We want to protect reliable, affordable energy,” Taylor said. “But when you also see this environmental devastation, it begs us to get involved and stand up for wildlife as well.”

The coalition says the government must consider the environmental impacts of combining all planned wind projects along the East Coast, not each one individually.

Dominion dismissed the lawsuit as politically motivated.

“Whatever plaintiffs’ issues with broader federal offshore wind policy, this is not the forum to address them,” lawyers for the company recently wrote in their opposition to the order.

In court, the Biden administration defended its decision to allow construction of the wind farm, saying the Office of Ocean Energy Management and other agencies conducted rigorous processes to assess any threats to the whales.