PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is accusing President Donald Trump of waging an “all-out assault” on the wind energy industry in a lawsuit, filed with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, suing the administration for stopping the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island.

The states’ lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, describes the project as a “cornerstone” of their renewable energy goals that was suddenly stopped by federal officials without “statutory authority, regulatory justification or factual basis.”

“With Revolution Wind, we have an opportunity to create good-paying jobs for Rhode Islanders, enhance energy reliability, and ensure energy cost savings while protecting our environment,” Neronha said in a press release.

Danish energy company Ørsted, Revolution Wind’s developer, has filed a separate suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., also arguing that the Trump administration lacks the legal authority to block the project. Ørsted said Revolution Wind is facing “substantial harm” from the stop-work order and is seeking a preliminary injunction to allow it to move forward with the project, which is 80% complete, with all underwater foundations and 45 of 65 turbines installed.

Meaghan Wims, a spokesperson for Ørsted, said the project secured all required federal and state permits in 2023, following reviews that began more than nine years ago. “Federal reviews and approvals included the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service, and several other agencies. Revolution Wind has spent and committed billions of dollars in reliance upon this fulsome review process,” she said.

Work on the project was halted Aug. 22 when the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a stop-work order for what it said were national security concerns. It didn’t specify those concerns, but Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told CNN that he worries offshore wind turbines distort radar detection systems and therefore could allow a “drone attack through a wind farm.”

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, noted the national security concerns were unfounded. The Department of Defense had given its approval for Revolution Wind, indicating it had no national security concerns, last December. The stop-work order, said Reed, will wreak havoc on Rhode Island’s economy and the region’s energy needs.

“It’s not about national security, it’s about this president’s insecurity,” Reed said. “Do you know what’s a threat to national security? Our reliance on countries in OPEC and other nations that have animosity toward us.”

Revolution Wind is the second major wind project the Trump administration ordered to stop work. The first, an offshore wind project for New York, was later allowed to resume construction.

When it approved Revolution Wind in 2023, BOEM said it consulted with the Department of Defense at each stage of the regulatory process for the lease area assigned to the project.

Located 15 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Revolution Wind is expected to deliver enough electricity to the New England grid to power 350,000 homes, or 2.5% of the region’s electricity supply, beginning in 2026. Revolution Wind is projected to save Connecticut and Rhode Island ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years.

Electricity consumption in Rhode Island accounts for 18.6% of all greenhouse gas emissions produced in the state. Cleaning up where residents and businesses source their electricity from is a key plank in curbing building emissions too, which combined account for around a third of all emissions statewide.

Rhode Island has also less than five years left on the clock to meet the next benchmark goal of the Act on Climate law. The bill, which became law in 2021, mandates the state reduce its emissions by 45% below 1990 levels by the end of this decade.