A federal court has ruled that a coalition of conservative groups has the right to continue fighting the Biden administration’s wind power project in Virginia.
However, U.S. District Judge Lauren L. Alikhan of the District of Columbia, a Biden appointee, denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction to halt construction of an offshore wind project off the Virginia coast.
The plaintiffs on Thursday withdrew their motion to appeal the narrow injunction decision in D.C. Circuit Court but plan to continue the lawsuit to block construction, an attorney said.
The plaintiffs sued the Biden administration and Dominion Energy Corp. to protect Atlantic right whales under the Endangered Species Act.
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Three offshore wind turbines off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, on August 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
The plaintiffs are the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the Heartland Institute, and the National Legal and Policy Center. The lawsuit specifically names the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and their top officials who approved the project, as well as Dominion.
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“We made a strategic decision that, given the timing, it made sense to forgo appealing Judge Ali Khan’s ruling that we hadn’t demonstrated irreparable harm. However, Judge Ali Khan ruled that we had a right to sue, which is a high bar,” Paul Kamenar, general counsel at the National Legal and Policy Center, told Fox News Digital.
If the plaintiffs had won on appeal, the case would have been sent back to the judge, which would have only taken more time, he said, and would have led to prolonged arguments about the merits of the case.
“By that time, our briefs in these cases will already be filed in early October, and Dominion will have to stop all work in any event from December through May 2025,” he said. “So by that time we will have presented our main arguments and hopefully by May of next year we will have a final judgment ordering a halt to further work in the 2025 season until Dominion has conducted a cumulative impact study.”
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The lawsuit seeks to force Dominion to halt construction of the project until the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management produces a new “biological opinion” that includes verifiable protections against potential harm to North Atlantic right whales. The lawsuit alleges that the agency approved Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project while ignoring procedural errors that could have caused significant harm to the endangered whales.
Spokesperson for Federal Government He declined to comment on the pending litigation.
A humpback whale jumps off the coast of Les Saintes, Guadeloupe, French West Indies, May 13, 2022. (Loïc Venance/AFP via Getty Images)
But Dominion did not hesitate to dismiss the lawsuit.
“We agree with the district court’s decision and support the agency’s approval of the project. The issues raised in this lawsuit are without merit,” Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton told Fox News Digital. “The National Marine Fisheries Service conducted a thorough environmental review, and the environmental safeguards we have in place for Virginia Coastal Offshore Wind (CVOW) protect the environment and marine life.”
The judge’s opinion did not address the merits of the larger lawsuit over whether the project violated the Endangered Species Act. It addressed the narrow issue of whether the construction would cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs, which included local residents.
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The judge ruled in favor of Dominion that while it was unlikely that Atlantic right whales were in the vicinity, construction would be halted if any were spotted.
The plaintiffs allege that when completed, the project would be the largest of its kind, consisting of 176 wind turbines taller than the Washington Monument, located more than 24 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
