LANSING — Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she along with other States Attorneys General across the country recently won a lawsuit against the Trump administration. The lawsuit was brought due to the administration’s unlawful order to freeze all federal permitting of wind energy projects.
According to a relaese by the Attorney General, the coalition of Attorneys General filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s decision to indefinitely halt all federal approvals necessary for the development of offshore and onshore wind energy projects pending federal review. This month, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated those actions, ruling that they were arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.
On January 20, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum that, among other things, indefinitely froze all federal approvals needed for the development of wind energy projects pending federal review. Pursuant to this directive, federal agencies stopped all permitting and approval activities.
“I am relieved that yet another court has stopped the Trump Administration from once again enacting unlawful policies that harm Michigan residents,” Attorney General Nessel said. “We must be able to have wind energy projects at our disposal to support clean, reliable, and affordable power for our communities, and I will continue to protect our natural resources, Great Lakes, and Michiganders from illegal actions that put them at risk.”
In their lawsuit, the attorneys general alleged that the federal agencies’ actions harmed their states’ efforts to secure reliable, diversified, and affordable sources of energy to meet their increasing demand for electricity and help reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants, meet clean energy goals, and address climate change. The agencies’ actions also threatened to thwart billions of dollars of investments in wind industry infrastructure, supply chains, and workforce development.
ttorney General Nessel was joined in this matter by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
