Posted on December 8, 2025
This story originally ran in The New Bedford Light.
The federal agency regulating offshore wind development asked a federal judge on Tuesday to allow it to reconsider a key approval — one the same agency granted just last year — for New England Wind 1, a project planned off the Massachusetts coast.
If the federal government’s request is granted, it would be a blow to the project, which plans to invest in New Bedford and use the city for long-term project operations. If the approval stands, the project could move toward construction once it secures a power purchase agreement with the commonwealth.
This is at least the third time the administration has sought a remand of an offshore wind project approval, the others being for SouthCoast Wind and Maryland’s US Wind. The permits give major infrastructure projects the certainty to secure financing and move forward with construction.
The filing comes more than two months after the federal government signaled it would take such action against this project. The remand request was expected sooner, but the weekslong government shutdown pushed the deadline.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management filed the motion as part of a lawsuit brought in May by offshore wind opposition group ACK for Whales and other parties, including the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, against BOEM and the Interior Department’s approval of New England Wind 1.
This latest move illustrates how President Donald Trump’s administration is using lawsuits brought by municipalities and activist groups as a tool to crack down on the industry. Of the more than 20 actions and orders issued since January, one directed federal attorneys to review pending litigation against projects and consider a remand of permits that the litigation contests.
BOEM Principal Deputy Director Matthew Giacona in a declaration signed Monday cited several of those orders, including Trump’s day-one wind memo.
The Light contacted Avangrid, the company developing the project, for comment Tuesday afternoon.
New England Wind 1 would abut Avangrid’s other project, Vineyard Wind, which sits south of Martha’s Vineyard and is wrapping up construction now.
The Construction and Operations Plan (COP), which BOEM could ultimately decide to revoke or approve with new conditions, is the final stamp of approval from the federal government for a project to build on the Outer Continental Shelf. It is the culmination of years of review that considers expert analysis and input from stakeholders and the public.
Giacona stated the COP approval “may have failed to account for all the impacts” of the project, and that federal reviews “may have also understated impacts.”
He and the federal government did not get into specifics, and cited general concerns such as interference with other marine activities (like commercial fishing and shipping) and “national security.” (The government cited national security concerns in its halting of Revolution Wind; a court later struck down that stop-work order.)
New England Wind 1 plans to construct the project out of Salem (a terminal yet to be built that, in August, lost $34 million in federal funding), but house its long-term operations and maintenance hub in New Bedford.
The project, along with SouthCoast Wind, issued letters of intent to use the under-construction New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal for operations and maintenance work, which is meant to last as long as the turbines operate — or about three decades.
Per a 2024 filing from Avangrid, the project planned to start construction in the second quarter of 2026, at the earliest.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell previously said if the project doesn’t move forward, it would eliminate at least 100 future jobs in the city. He added that estimate doesn’t include indirect jobs created, and other economic benefits to city businesses, including restaurants, hotels and shoreside operations.
Contingent on the project moving forward, the Danish company, Liftra, plans to establish a crane manufacturing facility in New Bedford.
Mitchell on Tuesday said he was disappointed, but not surprised: “Whether this particular project goes forward is becoming more in doubt by the day.”
The remand request further complicates negotiations for a power purchase agreement between the commonwealth and New England Wind. The agreements have been delayed several times, in large part due to federal actions. The deadline is now the end of this month.
The request for a remand will be decided by a federal judge. A different federal judge last month allowed the federal government’s remand request for SouthCoast Wind.
The government cited this in its argument to the court, stating its reasoning for New England Wind is the same, and that the court should reach the same conclusion and grant the remand request.
Meanwhile, several states, including Massachusetts, are waiting for a federal judge to rule on whether Trump’s day-one wind memo, the document underlying the administration’s actions against projects, is unlawful. It’s unclear when that decision will come, and what scope of relief it could provide to the states challenged by a president bent on stopping the industry.
Just as the federal government has not given a timeline for the review ordered by Trump’s memo, it has not given a timeline for the remand review. It said the projected timeline is “currently uncertain,” and asked the court to not impose a deadline by which it must make a determination on the 2024 approval.
