Feds move to pause Delaware wind power lawsuit as Ocean City case takes center stage
WILMINGTON, DE — Federal officials are asking a Delaware judge to temporarily halt a legal battle over a major offshore wind project, citing an expected court decision in a related Maryland case that could render the Delaware suit pointless.
The U.S. Department of the Interior and Army Corps of Engineers filed a motion on Thursday to stay proceedings in Bintz v. U.S. Department of the Interior, a lawsuit challenging the federal approval of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project located roughly 12 miles off the Delaware coast.
At the core of the motion is a pending effort by Interior to undo its own approval of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan (COP), which both the Delaware and Maryland lawsuits are centered on. Interior says it will file a motion by September 12 in the Maryland case — Mayor & City Council of Ocean City v. U.S. Department of the Interior — asking a federal judge to vacate and remand its COP decision for reevaluation.
If that happens, the government argues, the agency decision being challenged in the Delaware lawsuit will no longer exist — making the case moot.
Interior’s request, filed in Delaware District Court, comes ahead of a September 5 deadline for federal agencies to respond to the lawsuit brought by Edward E. Bintz, who claims the project violates several environmental laws. Bintz does not oppose the stay. However, US Wind, Inc., the developer and an intervenor in the case, has told the court it opposes pausing the litigation.
In the motion, federal attorneys argue that staying the case would preserve court resources and avoid forcing agencies to defend a decision they are already in the process of reconsidering. They also claim that even if the Maryland court denies Interior’s remand request, the delay in Delaware would be brief and not disrupt the wind project’s timeline, which isn’t expected to begin offshore construction until 2028.
Interior’s reconsideration of the COP could also require the Army Corps to reissue or amend its related permit under the Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act. Both agencies say any significant change to the COP would directly affect the validity of their prior approvals — the same ones now being litigated in the Delaware case.
In the Maryland litigation, the Ocean City plaintiffs are challenging the COP on similar grounds as Bintz, including alleged violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Federal attorneys are urging the Delaware court to stay proceedings until the Maryland judge rules on the forthcoming remand motion. They also asked that all parties be required to file a joint status report within 14 days of that ruling, proposing next steps.
The court has not yet ruled on the stay request.