New Jersey-based Clean Ocean Action, an activist group that fought to end ocean dumping in the 1980s and ‘90s, broke with other environmental groups by opposing Empire Wind. The Trump turnaround was a bitter shock.

The Trump administration had issued a highly unusual stop-work order on the Empire Wind project last month, leading to intense pushback from officials in New York.

In mid-April the federal government issued a stop-work order for a $5 billion offshore wind project in New York. The move stunned the industry, which was already reeling from President Donald Trump’s executive orders halting the federal permit process for such projects.