An attempt by President Donald Trump to put the brakes on wind energy development has been overturned in court. This clears a major legal obstacle for projects stalled on federal land and waters.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris ruled that Trump’s executive order freezing wind energy leasing and permitting cannot stand under federal law. Writing from the District of Massachusetts, Saris described the order as “arbitrary and capricious” and formally vacated the Jan. 20 directive, declaring it unlawful.
The decision comes as a victory for a coalition of attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The group challenged Trump’s Day One order, which halted new federal approvals for wind energy projects nationwide.
Trump has long attacked renewable energy and offshore wind in particular, favoring fossil fuels as the backbone of U.S. electricity production. His administration defended the pause as a necessary review of the environmental impacts tied to wind development.
State officials backing the lawsuit framed the ruling as a defense of economic investment and climate progress. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said her state had too much at stake to allow the order to remain in place.
“Massachusetts has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into offshore wind, and today, we successfully protected those important investments from the Trump administration’s unlawful order,” Campbell said in a statement.
James reiterated that sentiment, applauding the court for intervening against what she called an aggressive rollback of clean energy.
“As New Yorkers face rising energy costs, we need more energy sources, not fewer,” James said. “Wind energy is good for our environment, our economy, and our communities.”
The White House pushed back following the ruling. Spokesperson Taylor Rogers said offshore wind received special treatment under President Joe Biden while other energy sectors were weighed down by regulations.
“President Trump has ended Joe Biden’s war on American energy and unleashed America’s energy dominance to protect our economic and national security,” Rogers said in a statement to The Associated Press.
In court filings, the states argued that Trump lacked the authority to unilaterally stop wind permitting and that the freeze threatened jobs, public health, long-term climate targets and grid stability. The coalition includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington state and Washington, D.C. Together, they said they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in wind development and spent even more upgrading transmission lines needed to deliver that power.
The Justice Department countered that the case reflected a policy dispute rather than a legal violation. Government lawyer Michael Robertson argued the executive order paused permits rather than permanently shutting them down while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reviewed environmental concerns tied to wind projects.
Trump’s order cited what it called “alleged legal deficiencies underlying the federal government’s leasing and permitting” of wind energy during the Biden administration.
Earlier in the case, Judge William Young narrowed the scope of the lawsuit but allowed claims against Burgum to move forward. He ruled that the states could challenge the permitting freeze under the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies adopt regulations, though he dismissed constitutional claims and actions directly against Trump and other Cabinet members.
Wind power remains the largest source of renewable energy in the United States, supplying roughly 10 percent of the nation’s electricity, according to the American Clean Power Association.
Industry advocates welcomed the ruling as a reset. Marguerite Wells, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said wind remains among the cheapest and most reliable ways to generate power.
“Wind is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to generate power and is being used successfully not only in the United States, but across the world,’’ Wells said. “With this ruling behind us, projects can now be judged on their merits. We thank the attorneys general who helped us get this case over the finish line.”
Environmental groups also applauded the outcome. Kit Kennedy of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the decision benefits households, workers and the electric grid.
“From the beginning of its time in office, the Trump administration put a halt to the wind energy projects that are needed to keep utility bills in check and the grid reliable,’’ Kennedy said.
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The executive order, she added, “has been a devastating blow to workers, electricity customers, and the reliability of the power grid,’’ urging the administration to treat the ruling as a turning point and allow renewable energy expansion to move forward.
