Orsted wins reprieve on Revolution Wind project halted by Trump

Shares of Danish renewables giant Orsted rose nearly 5% on Tuesday morning, shortly after a U.S. judge cleared the company to resume work on its nearly finished Revolution Wind project.

In a statement, Orsted welcomed the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying the action would allow the company “to restart impacted activities immediately.”

The ruling is a legal setback for the pro-fossil fuel Trump administration, which moved to block the $5 billion Revolution Wind project.

The White House halted five major offshore wind developments at the end of last year, including Orsted’s project off the coast of Rhode Island. Officials cited national security concerns identified by the Pentagon as the reason for the suspension.

Orsted filed a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s decision earlier this month, saying that the lease suspension would cause “substantial harm” to the Revolution Wind project.

In a hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the Court should be “very skeptical of the government’s true motives” for putting a stop to the project, according to Reuters news agency.

“You want to stop everything in place, costing them one-and-a-half million a day, while you decide what you want to do?” Lamberth asked Justice Department attorney Peter Torstensen.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Interior Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, said the U.S. judge’s decision was clearly welcome news for the likes of Orsted and Danish wind turbine maker Vestas but warned of further industry uncertainty.

“It’s certainly a win for these companies anyway — and they have had such a hard time over the last year or so that they could definitely use that,” Field told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday.

“But … whether Trump will find a way around this or find some other way to maybe go at these companies is the question. So, I wouldn’t be completely celebrating as of yet,” he added.

Revolution Wind is a 50/50 joint venture between Orsted and Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables. In a filing last year, Orsted and Skyborn Renewables said they had already spent approximately $5 billion on the project.

Shares of Orsted traded 4.5% higher at around 10 a.m. London time (5 a.m. ET). Vestas, meanwhile, was last seen up around 1.6%.

Shares of Norway’s Equinor, whose Empire Wind 1 project was also impacted, were last seen 2.7% higher. U.S.-listed Dominion Energy, the developer of the halted Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest of its kind in America, was flat in pre-market trade.