Saturday, September 5, 2026
By Outer Banks Voice on January 16, 2026
On Friday, Jan. 16, Dominion Energy announced that a U.S. District Court had granted its request for a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) order to halt work at its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project (CVOW).
Citing “national security risks,” the DOI order that was issued on Dec. 22 suspended work at five offshore wind projects, including CVOW. Dominion Energy filed a suit challenging that order on Dec. 23, contending that it was “illegal” and “is causing serious, irreparable harm” to Dominion customers.
Here is the Dominion release on the injunction.
Today, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion Energy’s request for a preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project while Dominion Energy’s lawsuit challenging the agency’s action proceeds. Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks. While our legal challenge proceeds, we will continue seeking a durable resolution of this matter through cooperation with the federal government.
CVOW will consist of 176 offshore wind energy turbines generating a total of 2.6-gigawatts — enough energy to power up to 660,000 homes. CVOW is a critical part of Dominion Energy’s all-of-the-above diverse energy supply strategy to meet our region’s growing demand.
SEE ALSO: The Outer Banks Voice – January 16 hearing set in Dominion lawsuit over offshore wind project
Comments
Kathy
Good news after bad news. Sorry Court is not the best place for Dominion’s time and energy.
Dennis Zaenger
Correction to my earlier comment: CVOW is now 70% complete before the DOE’s stop-work order.
Anne Smith
Its totally garbage. I dont believe any of the so called “wind farms, solar farms or any other kind of energy”actually works. If so why are energy prices still going up?
Im not convinced and neither are eastern Va or NC folks.
Wayne
After all, the trouble\n That you people well know\n They would spend all that money to go to court, to finish these wind turbines. When your electric bill will not go down not one single bit. It will probably double.
Teddi Thompson
When a turbine in the Vineyard Wind offshore wind-energy facility experienced a sudden failure July 13, 2024 it spread fiberglass waste across the sea, which began washing ashore. Local officials warned about “floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards” and cautioned beachgoers not to go barefoot. The Nantucket Harbormaster had to close all southern-facing Nantucket beaches, including Pebble Beach, Miacomet Beach, Nobadeer Beach, Madequecham Beach, Tom Nevers Beach, Low Beach, and Sconset Beach. The incident ought to provide another sobering lesson for North Carolina policymakers. There are currently two humongous offshore wind projects planned off North Carolina beaches, and Gov. Roy Cooper and the Biden/Harris administration want many more. The Kitty Hawk project would feature 190 turbines, each one 1,042 feet tall — which would easily make them the tallest man-made structures in North Carolina (they’d be about 20% taller than the current tallest, the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, which is 871 feet tall). The Carolina Long Bay project would sit just 15 miles off the coast of Bald Head Island and Brunswick County beaches.
State policymakers have many reasons to protect the state’s electricity consumers, beach communities, coastal and oceanic ecologies, whales, military operations, and economy from offshore wind projects. The havoc wrought by just one broken blade adds to that list — especially considering North Carolina’s uniquely hurricane-prone waters:
Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice
Thanks for the comment, Teddi. And as I’m confident you know, Roy Cooper is no longer NC Governor and Joe Biden is no longer President,
Dennis Zaenger
Thanks for that correction, Mark. Another obvious error in Teddi’s comment, there is no Harris administration, she LOST!
And yes, Teddi, the finished turbine will stand 1,042 feet, but so what? You can’t see it from shore, the CVOW is 22-29 nautical miles off Virginia Beach. Just last week I stood on that beach looking for some sign of the now 2 completed wind turbines and they are beyond the horizon (note, sea horizon when looking from the beach is 8 nautical miles out there).
How foolish and backward to think that a failure of a blade in Vineyard Wind should stop all wind farm construction. Electric transmission lines ignited the California and Hawaii wildfires. Do you think we should tear down transmission lines, too?
When completed, CVOW will power 660,000 homes. There are 16,500 homes in Dare alone, so CVOW could provide power to 40 Dare counties. There will be hiccups and lessons to be learned, but oil spills and oil rig fires don’t stop further exploration, just force new safeguards.
Embrace these wind farms, they generate so much needed power and additional jobs that we should welcome this technology.