Seventeen states sued the Trump administration on Monday for stopping permits for wind energy projects, arguing that their actions represented an existential threat to the flourishing industry.
“This administration is devastating one of the fastest, reliable and affordable sources of faster growth in our nation,” said Attorney General Letitia James in New York, which is one of the plaintiffs. She said the Alto threatened “the loss of thousands of well -paid jobs and billions of investments” and was “delaying our transition far from fossil fuels that damage our health and our planet.”
The arrest of federal permits for wind energy was first established in an executive order of January 20, one of a flood that President Trump signed immediately after assuming the position. He ordered the agencies to stop all permits for wind farms waiting for federal review.
Demand says that, when meeting, federal agencies have put the large investments that have already been put at risk. The order also instructed the United States Attorney General and the Interior Secretary to explore “to end or modify” existing leases to wind farms, further increasing uncertainty for companies.
The wind industry provides about 10 percent of the electricity of the nation, and has many new development projects, particularly in the large plains and the Atlantic Ocean.
Last month, the Trump administration stopped a large wind farm under construction off the coast of Long Island, the Even Wind project of Empire. It was designed to provide sufficient electricity to feed half a million homes. He had already received the permits he needed, but the Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, suggested that the Biden administration analysis during the approval process was hurried and insufficient.
Mrs. James said Trump had also declared an energy emergency. Energy experts have called that exaggerated statement. However, he said, the moratorium in wind permits is to damage the ability to provide a new energy source.
New York also has a new law in books that require dramatically to increase the amount of electricity that comes from renewable sources. Achieving that goal will become more complicated without wind sources.
The demand, for 17 states and Washington, DC, appoints numerous federal officials and agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, accused the general democratic prosecutors who demanded to use the “law” to frustrate the president’s energy agenda. “Americans in the blue states should not have to pay the price of the radical climate agenda of the Democrats,” he said.
The Interior Department said in a statement that it was committed to “supervising public lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans, while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the US people.”
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, asks a judge to prevent federal agencies from taking measures to block wind energy development and declare the executive order illegal.
“The Trump administration directive to stop the development of wind energy on the high seas is illegal,” said Rob Bonta, California Attorney General.
His office said the federal policy “would derail the transition of clean energy” and lead to higher costs for Americans. In addition to the wind sites on land, the State has five wind leases on the high seas, the office said. The high seas operations are more complicated and expensive to operate.
Timothy Fox, managing director of Clearview Energy Partners, a Washington consulting firm, said he expected the lawsuit to face a uphill upload to convince the court to block the executive order. The “best scenario” of the offshore wind industry is that the facilities that are already operating, or far in development, can continue without opposition from the Trump administration, he said.
