Judge denies motion to pause Ocean City wind farm litigation

Racquel Bazos, Baltimore Sun on Oct 4, 2025

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BALTIMORE — A federal judge denied the Trump administration’s bid to pause Ocean City’s lawsuit over offshore wind power due to the federal government shutdown.

Before the government shutdown, Judge Stephanie Gallagher was expected to issue a ruling that would either allow U.S. Wind to move forward or give the U.S. Department of the Interior the ability to pull back its approval. In August, the Department of the Interior, speaking for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, joined Ocean City in asking the court to send the case back and vacate the prior approval.

The government’s Thursday filing asked the court to pause the case because the Department of Justice’s attorneys are “prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, with few exceptions” since the shutdown began on Wednesday.

The plaintiffs in the case, Ocean City and other local governments and businesses, agreed to the proposal, according to the government’s filing. U.S. Wind, the company that plans to build the wind turbines, did not.

The company wrote that the lack of funding would not necessarily prevent the government from taking “extra-judicial actions” against the project’s approval outside the courtroom. The Trump administration is determined to “claw back” the standing Biden-era approval for the project, the company wrote.

In a paperless ruling, Judge Stephanie Gallagher denied the motion, saying she will consider both sides’ positions during a teleconference this coming Tuesday.

The project calls for 114 turbines, each 938 feet tall, to be built 10.7 miles off the resort town’s coast. City officials say the turbines would be visible from shore and could harm Ocean City’s environment, tourism economy and fishing community. The project’s 2024 proposal to BOEM stated it could provide up to 2,200 megawatts of energy.

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(Sun reporters Josh Davis and Todd Karpovich contributed to this article.)

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