State Sen. Andrew Gounardes on Friday sharply criticized the Trump administration’s move to halt construction on a major offshore wind project based in his Brooklyn district.

The Empire Wind One project, located at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, was expected to power over 500,000 homes starting next year. Originally approved in 2017 under the Trump administration, the project is now in limbo as the U.S. Department of the Interior seeks to re-review construction plans.

Gounardes, a Democrat whose district includes Sunset Park and Red Hook, said during an interview on “Mornings On 1” that the decision came as a shock.

“When [President Donald] Trump first came into office, they did have that executive order to pause all future offshore wind development, so we kind of knew this was the direction they were going. But we thought that the projects that had been signed, sealed, delivered — shovels in the ground — could keep moving ahead,” he said.

Gounardes questioned the basis for the Interior Department’s renewed scrutiny of the project.

"All of the conspiracy theories that this is bad for whales and things like that have all been debunked. That's why so many conservation groups support the development of offshore wind, because clean energy is a lot better for all animal life than dirty, polluting energy,” he said.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully permitted project. He said it needs further review because it appears the Biden administration rushed the approval.

Gounardes said that the administration's position on wind energy appears hypocritical.

"Their energy policy and their views are from the 19th century, right? We're talking about 21st century energy here," Gounardes said. "Offshore wind is the future — the job creation, the clean energy generation, the impact for communities like mine ... this is the perfect marriage of all of these things together, and now that rug is being pulled out from under us.”

Union leaders held a rally this week saying they don’t yet consider the project dead, though construction has been paused. Gounardes said legal action is likely.

“I imagine that this will have to go to the courts,” Gounardes said. “The investments that were pouring into this community are now in jeopardy. I think there's a strong case to be made here that on a contract that's signed, you have to be able to rely on that. That's the whole premise of the rule of law. But again, we're seeing the rule of law being torn up in front of our very eyes everywhere ... so this is going to be another thing to add to that list of cases where we have to stand up and fight back.”