New York State is leading a coalition of eight states in a federal lawsuit challenging a Trump administration agreement that calls for canceling the Bluepoint Wind lease for a proposed offshore wind project 38 nautical miles south of Long Island.
Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the lawsuit Tuesday, Sept. 22. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of Justice and federal officials, with Bluepoint Wind named as an interested party.
Bluepoint Wind’s 71,522-acre federal lease area is in the New York Bight. A presentation to New York’s Maritime Technical Working Group places it 38 nautical miles south of Long Island and 53 nautical miles east of New Jersey. The project was planned for up to 2.4 gigawatts of generating capacity, which Bluepoint has said could power more than 1 million homes.
Image: Bluepoint Wind’s federal lease area in the New York Bight. Credit: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management/U.S. Department of the Interior.
The dispute centers on an agreement announced by the Interior Department on April 27. Global Infrastructure Partners, a 50% owner of Bluepoint Wind, agreed to invest up to $765 million, the amount originally paid for the federal lease, in a U.S.-based liquefied natural gas facility. Interior said it would then cancel the offshore wind lease and reimburse the lease payment dollar-for-dollar based on the amount invested. Bluepoint also agreed not to pursue new offshore wind developments in the United States.
Interior said when it announced the agreement that the offshore wind lease was difficult to develop without federal subsidies and that moving the investment to conventional energy would support energy reliability, affordability and national security.
James and the other attorneys general dispute the legality of the arrangement. Their complaint alleges the federal government cannot use the federal Judgment Fund to reimburse Bluepoint because the agreement did not resolve a legitimate claim against the government. The states also allege the lease cancellation violates federal environmental, offshore leasing and administrative laws.
The states are asking the court to declare the agreement unlawful, set aside the lease cancellation and prevent the federal government from taking further action to implement it.
New York also filed a separate lawsuit challenging an agreement involving Invenergy and three additional offshore wind leases. James’ office said the Bluepoint and Invenergy arrangements together involve more than $1.4 billion.
Joining New York in the Bluepoint lawsuit are New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.
