Eight states sued the Trump administration on Monday for their arrest of permits for wind energy projects, arguing that their actions represented an existential threat to the flourishing industry.
“This administration is devastating one of the clean, reliable and affordable energy sources of our nations of 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 presented for the first time in an executive order on January 20, one of the bombs that President Trump signed immediately by 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, increasingly uncertainty for companies.
The wind industry provides about 10 percent of the electricity of the nations, 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 duration of the Biden administration analysis, the focus process was rushed and insufficient.
Mrs. James said Trump had also declared an energy emergency. Energy experts have called that exaggerated statement. Neverberthes, 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 lawsuit appoints numerous officials and federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. 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 that Ulawful.
“The Trump administration directive for the haltopment 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. Operations on the high seas are more complicated and exempt 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.
