A federal judge dealt President Donald Trump’s administration a significant legal blow on Monday, striking down his ban on wind power project approvals on federal lands and waters.
Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the president’s executive order stopping all leasing for new wind projects was “arbitrary and capricious,” violating federal law, The New York Times reported. The judge, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, found that the Interior Department failed to provide a legally required “reasoned explanation” for halting approvals, noting instead that the “agency defendants candidly concede that the sole factor they considered in deciding to stop issuing permits was the president’s direction to do so.”
Trump issued the executive order on his first day in office in January. At that time, several states were developing more than a dozen offshore wind farms to support renewable energy targets. One offshore wind farm has since been completed with five more under construction, though developers have faced permit delays and some projects have been canceled.
“As we look to build the electric grid that will power America’s future, wind energy is a key component,” Marguerite Wells, the executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said in a statement. “With this ruling behind us, projects can now be judged on their merits.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers countered that the Biden administration had given offshore wind “unfair, preferential treatment while the rest of the energy industry was hindered by burdensome regulations.”
Trump has seemingly harbored a grudge against wind power since at least 2012, when plans emerged for a wind farm near his Aberdeen golf course.
“They’re horrible looking structures,” Trump complained at the time. “They make noise, they kill birds by the thousands.” He sued unsuccessfully to block the project, which was completed in 2018.
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