Shan Ahmed Khan

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is due to rule Thursday on whether Equinor can resume construction of its $5.5 billion Empire Wind project off Long Island after the Trump administration paused offshore wind activity in federal waters. Equinor has told the court it could face project termination if work does not restart by Jan. 16, and a telephonic hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time. At Wednesday’s hearing, Empire Wind attorney Ann Navaro called the pause an “existential risk,” while Justice Department attorney Stanley Woodward dismissed the feared harms as “speculative.” Equinor says the pause could doom Empire Wind, which it says is about 60% complete and meant to power more than 500,000 homes. Molly Morris, Equinor’s senior vice president overseeing the project, said a heavy-lift vessel needed to set a substation topside weighing more than 3,000 tons is due to leave on Feb. 1, and officials have not explained the security concerns or how to mitigate them. The administration filed its national security reasoning under seal, and Nichols told government lawyers, “Your brief doesn’t even include the word arbitrary.”