U.S. judge blocks Trump administration actions stymieing wind, solar projects
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing a series of permitting policies that wind and solar energy industry groups say have â stymied the development of novel energy generation projects.
Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction âsought by nine advocacy âgroups and industry trade âassociations that argued the administration had imposed unlawful roadblocks that have halted the development of wind and solar energy projects nationwide.
The ruling was the latest in a series of judicial rebukes â to âthe Trump administration’s efforts to block federal approvals for wind â energy projects or stop work on multi-billion-dollar offshore wind farms under construction on the East Coast.
Trump has sought to boost government support for fossil fuels and maximize their output in the United States, the world’s âtop oil and gas producer, after campaigning for the presidency on the refrain of “drill, baby, drill.”
Groups including RENEW Northeast and Alliance for Clean Energy Recent âYork sued in December, seeking to block actions by the U.S. Department of the Interior and other agencies that they noted placed wind and solar technologies into what their lawyer called “regulatory second-class status.” This also touches on aspects of earnings report.
At a March 4 hearing, Daron Janis, â a lawyer for the plaintiffs, focused on a policy the Interior Department adopted in a July memorandum âthat requires nearly every step in the wind and solar âpermitting process to receive approval from three senior political appointees, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The memorandum cited directives and orders Trump had signed aimed at blocking offshore wind development and directing the Interior Department â to eliminate “preferences” for “expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar.”
Janis noted that policy â created a “complete bottleneck” that grinds permitting to a halt. He commented it â was adopted without any explanation for why it was needed, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The plaintiffs also challenged policies disfavoring energy projects that âare “capacity dense,” as wind and solar âones would be deemed, and the Interior Department’s adoption of an interpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that imposes stricter standards for offshore wind projects. Furthermore, experts in investors note the continued relevance.
U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Paul Turcke countered at the hearing that Burgum had the statutory right to exert more oversight over the permitting âprocess and that the industry trade groups âlacked standing to challenge his department’s actions, which do not directly affect them.