A coalition of attorneys general from 17 US states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the implementation of President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order stopping wind project approvals (Wind Directive).
The lawsuit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions stopping all federal agencies from implementing the Wind Directive for being arbitrary and unlawful agency action outside their respective statutory authorities.
The states allege that the federal agencies’ categorical and indefinite halt on all wind-energy project approvals is arbitrary and capricious. The lawsuit argues that neither the Wind Directive nor federal agencies provided a “reasoned explanation for its categorical and indefinite halt of all wind energy development.” Under subsection 706(2)(a) of the Administrative Procedure Act, a court is required to set aside agency action that is “not reasonable or reasonably explained.”
Additionally, the lawsuit also alleges that the implementation of the Wind Directive by the various federal agencies violates their respective statutory authorities, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which regulate the permitting and approval of wind energy projects. The attorneys general argue that these statutes do not authorize the Defendants to indefinitely halt wind energy project approvals pending a new extra-statutory review in consultation with six agencies. Instead, the statutes require the Executive to promptly process federal approvals for such development in accordance with specific procedures and standards.
Announcing the lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James stated:
This administration is devastating one of our nation’s fastest-growing sources of clean, reliable, and affordable energy. … 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.
Trump’s executive order temporarily halting new or renewed leases for offshore wind projects was one of more than 60 such day 1 orders. The states’ lawsuit follows the Trump administration’s decision to halt the construction of Equinor’s Empire Wind Project off the coast of New York, as well as the suspension of offshore wind projects in the US by the German energy company RWE due to political uncertainty.
