Why Should Delaware Care?
A proposed offshore wind farm slated for construction off the Delmarva coast has been the center of local, state and federal controversy for years. Now, as a judicial order is pending on the future of its construction permits, Delaware’s top law enforcement official is entering the fray.
Delaware’s Attorney General Kathy Jennings filed a motion in federal court in support of a company seeking to build a controversial wind farm off the Delmarva coast as it fends off a lawsuit preventing the project from moving forward.
US Wind, a Maryland-based company, hopes to build 121 turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md., but has been targeted in the courts by both city leaders and the Trump administration. The project has been the subject of years of scrutiny in both southern Delaware and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Now, Jennings has stepped in, supporting US Wind’s efforts to stop the federal government from pulling its construction permits. If the Trump administration succeeds, it would effectively kill the project and bankrupt US Wind.
Last week, Jennings’ office filed a brief in the ongoing lawsuit challenging the legality of the proposed wind farm. She expressed support for the project and outlined the benefits it would have in Delaware.
Jennings decried efforts by the Trump administration to halt the project through “unilateral executive action.” Since the first day of his second term, Trump has taken aim at multiple wind projects across the country, freezing production along coastlines.
“This is no time to move the goal posts,” Jennings wrote. “It is too late for that, and the President lacks the authority to rescind or stall a project approved after over a decade of work and review and compliance.”
The majority of her brief focused on the benefits of the project in Delaware, specifically US Wind paying $200 million to upgrade the regional power grid. Additionally, Jennings pointed to a US Wind estimate that supply provided by the project would save Delaware $253 million in capacity and energy prices.
She also said Delaware is attached to the future of the project, given the need for US Wind to run high-voltage cables through the Indian River, connecting them to a proposed substation in Dagsboro.
Last week, the Maryland Attorney General’s office also filed a brief in support of US Wind.
Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the White House, did not address the brief in a statement sent to Spotlight Delaware.
“President Trump was elected with a resounding mandate to end Joe Biden’s war on American energy and restore our country’s energy dominance – which includes prioritizing the most effective and reliable tools to power our country,” Kelly said in an emailed statement.
A spokesperson for US Wind said the company is confident its permits will be upheld and that it will be able to begin construction.
“As we continue to defend our lawful federal permits in court, we are grateful for the support we’ve received from Maryland and Delaware,” Nancy Sopko, US Wind’s vice president of external affairs, said in an emailed statement.
How did we get here?
US Wind’s project has been ensnared in legal battles across multiple states and at both the local and federal level.
In local court, US Wind filed an appeal to a Sussex County decision to deny a conditional use permit for its Dagsboro substation late last year.
In June, Delaware’s legislature passed a bill to retroactively strip Sussex County of its ability to make land-use decisions on the property where the substation will sit. The law will go into effect early next year.
During the final hours of the 2025 legislative session on June 30, Delaware Senate Republicans – who have long opposed the offshore wind project – tried to block passage of the bill by threatening to withhold votes for the state’s capital budget. Ultimately, Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise that delayed the implementation of the bill until next year, allowing legal challenges against the proposed wind farm to play out.
More recently, in the Ocean City case, federal attorneys asked a judge to allow for a “voluntary remand” of US Wind’s construction permit – which would send the permit approvals back to an administrative agency for reassessment.
A judge has yet to rule on that request.
US Wind argued in a counterclaim it filed in September that the federal government’s plan to rescind permits is a result of “political pressure” from Trump. On Monday, federal attorneys filed a motion to dismiss US Wind’s counterclaim.