The US Department of the Interior (DOI) seeks to cancel its approval of the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) granted to US Wind for its 2 GW Maryland Offshore Wind Project. A recent court filing in Delaware indicates DOI’s intent to vacate the federal approval in a legal proceeding in Maryland.
US Wind secured an 80,000-acre federal lease off Maryland’s coast in 2014. The Maryland Offshore Wind Project includes three phases. Two phases, MarWin and Momentum Wind, have offshore renewable energy certificates (ORECs) from Maryland.
In September last year, the DOI, through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), authorized the Maryland Offshore Wind Project and approved its COP in December 2024.
On 22 August, in a Delaware lawsuit filed by a homeowner against the DOI’s COP approval, the DOI requested a case suspension. The department plans to vacate the decision in a related Maryland case where the DOI is a defendant.
In Maryland, DOI, BOEM, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) face a lawsuit from Ocean City’s Mayor and City Council for approving US Wind’s COP.
The DOI “intends to move to voluntarily remand and vacate its approval” of the COP in Maryland, making the Delaware claims moot, according to their motion to stay the Delaware case.
The DOI plans to file a motion for COP remand to the Maryland district court by 12 September.
“Interior now intends to reevaluate under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) its decision to approve the COP and, as a result, will be moving no later than September 12 in the Maryland Action for remand of that prior COP approval,” the DOI stated in their motion to stay the Delaware case.
The DOI’s decision to reassess the COP under the OCSLA coincides with the stop-work order for the Revolution Wind project offshore Connecticut and Rhode Island, also referencing the OCSLA.
These actions follow the Presidential Memorandum issued on 20 January 2025 and the Interior Secretary’s Order (SO) 3437 from 29 July, Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign Controlled Energy Sources in Department Decision-Making, specifically addressing OCSLA.
Following the Secretary’s Order, BOEM rescinded and de-designated all Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) on the US Outer Continental Shelf.
According to the Secretary’s Order, prior DOI leadership misapplied section 8(p)(4) of the OCSLA, 43 U.S.C. § 1337(p)(4), regarding “interference with reasonable uses (as determined by the Secretary) of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas.”
In the order halting Revolution Wind activities on the OCS on 22 August, BOEM emphasized reviewing “concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas,” as per OCSLA.
OffshoreWIND.biz reached out to US Wind, which has not yet responded.
In a statement to offshoreWIND.biz, a spokesperson from Oceantic Network expressed that “US Wind received their federal permits after more than four years of thorough environmental and agency review; it is legally sound. Once completed, the Maryland project and Sparrows Point Steel will enhance our national security and economic freedom by directly supporting steel mill investments and bring back important steel fabrication capabilities to America.”
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