James said she was grateful the court stepped in “to block the administration’s reckless and unlawful crusade against 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 coalition that opposed Trump’s order argued that Trump doesn’t have the authority to halt project permitting, and that doing so jeopardizes the states’ economies, energy mix, public health and climate goals.
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. They say they’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars collectively to develop wind energy and even more on upgrading transmission lines to bring wind energy to the electrical grid.
The government argued that the states’ claims amount to nothing more than a policy disagreement over preferences for wind versus fossil fuel energy development that is outside the federal court’s jurisdiction. Justice Department lawyer Michael Robertson said in court that the wind order paused permitting, but didn’t halt it, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reviews the environmental impact of wind projects.
The executive order said there were “alleged legal deficiencies underlying the federal government’s leasing and permitting” of wind projects under the Biden administration.
A previous judge in the case allowed it to proceed against Burgum, but dismissed an action against Trump and other Cabinet secretaries. Judge William Young allowed the states to proceed with claims that blocking permits for wind energy projects violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which outlines a detailed process for enacting regulations, but not the Constitution.
Wind is the United States’ largest source of renewable energy, providing about 10% of the electricity generated in the nation, according to the American Clean Power Association.