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connecticut
Lawsuit Seeks to Stop 'Arbitrary and Capricious' Trump Attack on New England Wind Farm
"My experience tells me the discovery phase will be fascinating as the lawyers dig into the true motivations and scheming behind this ugly fossil fuel thuggery," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.
Sep 04, 2025
The attorneys general of Connecticut and Rhode Island on Thursday joined renewable energy companies in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's suspension of an offshore wind farm that, if completed, will power hundreds of thousands of homes in the two New England states.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, both Democrats, announced they are suing "to overturn the baseless stop-work order abruptly issued on August 22, 2025, which halted the construction of Revolution Wind," a project located 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast.
"Revolution Wind is fully permitted, nearly complete and months from providing enough American-made, clean, affordable energy to power 350,000 homes," Tong said in a statement. "Now, with zero justification, [US President Donald] Trump wants to mothball the project, send workers home, and saddle Connecticut families with millions of dollars in higher energy costs. This kind of erratic and reckless governing is blatantly illegal, and we're suing to stop it."
Acting US Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) Director Matthew Giacona issued the order directing Rob Keiser, head of asset management at the North American branch of the Danish firm Ørsted—the world's largest offshore wind developer—to "halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind project on the outer continental shelf."
Giacona's order—which cited "concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States"—is to remain in effect pending review by BOEM, which is part of the US Interior Department.
Ratepayers could have saved $400 million last winter if the 3.5 GW of offshore wind in New England was operational.Meanwhile, Trump just halted construction on Rhode Island's Revolution Wind and is trying to ban wind energy entirely. You can thank Trump when your energy bills continue to rise.
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— LCV – League of Conservation Voters 🌎 (@lcv.org) September 4, 2025 at 6:31 AM
At the time of the order, Ørsted said that Revolution Wind was "80% complete, with all offshore foundations installed and 45 out of 65 wind turbines installed."
The lawsuit filed by Revolution Wind—a joint venture between Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables—seeks to lift BOEM's order. An attorney for Ørsted contended Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia that Trump's "apparent hostility toward offshore wind" was behind the stop-work order.
"The project has spent billions of dollars in reliance on these valid approvals," the Revolution Wind filing states. "The stop-work order is invalid and must be set aside because it was issued without statutory authority, in violation of agency regulations and procedures and the 5th Amendment's due process clause, and is arbitrary and capricious."
US Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who previously condemned the stop-work order, said Thursday that "if Trump's plan is to raise families' energy prices, cut American jobs, turbocharge climate change, and accelerate the Great Climate Insurance Crisis, he's knocking it out of the park with his all-out attack on American offshore wind."
"Wind power is one of the fastest, safest, cheapest ways to meet rising electricity demand and cut energy prices," the senator continued. "The only winners here are the corrupt fossil fuel donors who bankrolled Trump's campaign."
In a separate social media post on Thursday addressing the new lawsuit, Whitehouse said that "my experience tells me the discovery phase will be fascinating as the lawyers dig into the true motivations and scheming behind this ugly fossil fuel thuggery."
Revolution Wind is at least the second major wind project hit with a BOEM stop-work order during the second administration of Trump, who campaigned on a "drill, baby, drill" pro-fossil fuels platform.
Trump has also antagonized Denmark by threatening to take control of Greenland, a Danish territory. Last month, Denmark's Foreign Ministry summoned Mark Stroh, Trump's charge d'affaires in the Nordic nation, following a report by the main Danish public broadcaster alleging that three Americans with ties to Trump have been attempting to instigate tensions between Denmark and Greenland.
Thursday's lawsuit follows another multistate complaint filed in May by 18 attorneys general seeking to block Trump's effort to pause offshore wind development via an executive order issued on the president's first day in office.
"This arbitrary and unnecessary directive threatens the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments, and it is delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet," Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the coalition of states, said at the time.
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New Senate Report Details How Private Equity 'Devastates' Hospital Systems
"Private equity comes in, squeezes the life out of hospitals and doctor's offices, and then leaves patients and communities in the lurch," says a report from Sen. Chris Murphy.
Aug 20, 2025
A US senator on Wednesday released a report that detailed how private equity firms have ruined hospitals in his home state and across the country.
The report from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) documented what happened when three Connecticut hospitals—Waterbury Hospital, Rockville General, and Manchester Memorial—were bought by Prospect Medical Holdings, a private equity-backed healthcare firm.
Interviews conducted with staff members of these hospitals told a consistent story about how Prospect cut corners in nearly every conceivable aspect and worsened the care patients received at the hospitals.
Ramona, an operating room assistant at Waterbury Hospital cited in the report, explained how Prospect went to extreme lengths to avoid spending money. She explained to Murphy that Prospect at one point stopped paying vendors, which resulted in supplies eventually growing "so scarce patients were sometimes left on the operating table while staff scrambled" to find the necessary equipment.
Staff members eventually started buying supplies themselves, with some even going so far as to buy food for their patients to ensure that they did not go hungry.
A nurse named Anne-Marie, who has worked at Manchester Memorial for over three decades, told Murphy's staff that it was only through the dedication of staff members that her hospital was able to continue functioning at all.
"You know, I'm very fortunate where I work that we still care and patients can't believe what a good job we do despite all of the obstacles and hurdles we've been given," she said. "We still show up every day and we're committed to our communities, thankfully."
Prospect didn't just skimp on buying supplies for the hospitals but also on maintaining the buildings themselves. A unit secretary at Waterbury Hospital named Carmen told Murphy's staff of two instances where the ceiling at the building literally fell down due to years of neglect.
"We were lucky enough that the patient had already been discharged and where it fell, it would have missed the stretcher and the patient," she said of the first instance. "The other time it fell in the trauma room, it was only on top of the computers... so we called maintenance, and they came and fixed it, [which means] putting a little hose where the water is and putting buckets to catch the water…it's happened a lot."
The deterioration of patient care at Waterbury became obvious by 2019, when the report noted that it "recorded the highest rates of patient readmission in the state."
Things got even worse for the hospitals when Leonard Green & Partners, the private equity firm that at the time owned Prospect, decided to sell the land where the hospitals reside to a real estate investment firm that then leased the land back at high rates. The final blow came when Leonard Green sold off its stake in Prospect, which the report says left "nothing but debt and destruction" in its wake.
"After Leonard Green's exit, Rockville Hospital was losing so much money, they cut all but emergency and outpatient mental health services without the required state authorization, leaving many patients with no full-service hospital nearby," the report stated.
Prospect itself filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and the fate of all three hospitals is now "in the hands of a bankruptcy judge in Texas," the report added.
Murphy's report also emphasized that the story of private equity stripping hospitals for parts is not unique to his state.
"The story of these three Connecticut hospitals is playing out in healthcare systems all over the country," it said. "Private equity comes in, squeezes the life out of hospitals and doctor's offices, and then leaves patients and communities in the lurch."
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Senator Urges Contempt Motion Against Trump Officials Over Alleged Deportations to South Sudan
"A federal judge is wise to Trump's ploy of illegally deporting immigrants and then claiming there is nothing he can do to get them back," said the former executive director of Human Rights Watch.
May 21, 2025
Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on Tuesday urged a federal judge to consider holding U.S. officials in contempt of court following the Trump administration's alleged deportation of multiple immigrants from Southeast Asia to South Sudan, possibly in violation of an order handed down by that same judge earlier this spring.
On Tuesday, lawyers for the immigrants accused the Trump administration of deporting nationals from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in violation of a court order. In court filings, the lawyers also said they received "information" that there were likely at least 10 others also on the same plane to South Sudan.
In April, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts directed the Trump administration to give immigrants a chance to challenge their deportations to a third country. Murphy ruled that the Trump administration must give them 15 days' notice to raise concerns about danger they may face if deported.
"If those individuals were on a plane sent to South Sudan, it seems a violation of the court order. Judge Murphy ought to be really angry, his order has been violated, and he ought to consider a contempt of court motion, and no doubt the plaintiffs are considering it now," said Blumenthal on CNN on Tuesday evening.
"Violation of court orders ought to be treated with the utmost of sanctions, because otherwise the law is dead letter," Blumenthal continued.
Murphy hastily called a hearing on Tuesday evening and issued a ruling that the Trump administration must "maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful," according to The Associated Press.
During the hearing, Murphy warned criminal sanctions could be invoked against those involved in the deportations who were aware of his order. "Based on what I have been told," he said according to The New York Times, "this seems like it may be contempt."
In addition to not being the country of origin of the individuals feared deported, South Sudan has faced continued instability and political violence between government forces and opposition factions.
Murphy has ordered U.S. officials back to court on Wednesday so they can provide more information, such as who exactly was removed and what opportunity they were given to raise concerns about dangers they may face upon deportation, according to the AP. Officials must also give information about the whereabouts of the migrants who have apparently already been deported.
In March, the Trump administration sent Venezuelan immigrants to a megaprison in El Salvdor after invoking a little-used wartime statute. As those deportations were taking place, a federal judge ordered that any planes carrying them either not take off or turn around, but the Trump administration did not turn the planes around.
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to facilitate the release of a Salvadoran man who was on one of the planes to El Salvador. The man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is still in El Salvador and the Trump administration has said that it is up to El Salvador whether to release him.
Commenting on reporting of the judge's order to keep the immigrants apparently sent to South Sudan in U.S. custody, human rights advocate and former executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth wrote: "A federal judge is wise to Trump's ploy of illegally deporting immigrants and then claiming there is nothing he can do to get them back."
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