New York, Massachusetts lead states’ offshore wind challenge to Trump

Seventeen states filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court challenging President Trump’s directive to shut down offshore wind projects, declaring the sudden halt on wind-energy approvals “are unlawful and jeopardize the continued development of a power source critical to the states’ economic vitality, energy mix, public health, and climate goals.”

The court action filed in U.S. District Court in Boston is brought by the 17 state attorneys general, joined by the District of Columbia. The complaint is led by New York and Massachusetts, where Trump administration officials have moved aggressively to block projects, despite federal leases and permits that date back to 2017.

Neither Trump nor executive branch agencies “have offered any detailed justification to explain the abrupt change in longstanding federal policy supporting the development of wind energy,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit names New York, Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington State as the plaintiffs.

The states’ pushback reflects the larger national debate over the Trump administration’s 180-degree turn from renewable energy policies – some dating from Trump’s first presidential term – and now its strident advocacy for fast-tracking oil and gas development.

“These and numerous other executive actions similarly encouraged domestic energy development—that is, all but wind and other renewable energy – and also directed agencies to shortcut environmental reviews for other forms of energy – the very same reviews the Wind Directive labels as inadequate as to wind energy,” the state attorneys say.

“The Wind Directive has stopped most wind-energy development in its tracks,despite the fact that wind energy is a homegrown source of reliable, affordable energy that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, creates billions of dollars in economic activity and tax payments, and supplies more than 10% of the country’s electricity.”

In a statement Monday supporting the states’ lawsuit, Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said Trump’s actions will harm investments in energy even beyond states with offshore wind projects.

“Federal actions jeopardizing locally-produced energy risk the economic stability of all states, not only those states developing wind energy, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Americans relying on critical supply chain investments to spur business and economic growth and maintain family-supporting jobs.”