The US is already behind many other countries in implementing renewable and clean energy sources and now Donald Trump has ordered to put a stop to all wind farm permits on federal lands and waters.
A federal judge finds Trump’s action illegal, calling Trump’s ban “capricious.” It was on Monday that the federal judge struck down the president’s half on wind power projects approvals, whether on federal lands or waters. This action will lead to a significant legal setback to the Trump administration’s campaign against wind farms.
As noted by the BBC, Judge Patti B. Saris of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote that Trump’s sweeping executive order, set to halt all leasing of public lands and waters for new wind projects, was “arbitrary and capricious,” and that it violated federal law.
An appointee of President Bill Clinton, Judge Saris said the Interior Department did not provide a “reasoned explanation” for its decision to halt approving wind projects, as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. Meanwhile, she explained 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.”
🚨Update: President Trump ordered a halt to all federally funded wind farms across America! Trump says these windmills look horrible and ruin the landscape! pic.twitter.com/6HDxhATifW
— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) August 7, 2025
Trump issued the executive order on his first day back in office in January. A longtime critic of wind power, at a time when states like Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York were planning to build over a dozen large wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean, he didn’t care they were working to meet their renewable energy goals.
Trump’s order effectively halted many of these efforts and right now, only one offshore wind farm has been completed, with five more under construction in US coastal waters. However, developers are unable to get permits for additional wind farms, which has led to some planned projects being canceled.
Moreover, the president’s directive also put a stop to wind farms on federal land, inclusive the prohibition of the Lava Ridge Wind Project, a sprawling wind farm in Idaho, previously approved by the Biden administration.
A coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia, led by New York challenged Trump’s executive order in court in May. Moreover, the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, a nonprofit advocacy gro9up based in Albany, NY also joined the effort.
“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.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat of New York, made a statement, pointing out that the decision was “a major victory for our state and the entire region,” and that would was set to protect “thousands of good-paying jobs” while supporting the offshore wind sector.
Matthew Nies, spokesman for the Justice Department, declined to comment on whether the agency would appeal the ruling. However, when asked about the ruling, Taylor Rodgers, a White House spokeswoman, wrote in an email that the Biden administration had given offshore wind projects “unfair, preferential treatment while the rest of the energy industry was hindered by burdensome regulations.”
Rogers added that the president’s executive order, had it remained in effect, would have led federal agencies to investigate whether offshore wind projects were raising energy costs for Americans.
Besides the freeze on new permits for wind farms, the Trump administration has attempted to revoke permits that were issued by the Biden administration for wind farms off Maryland and Massachusetts. Moreover, it has also tried to halt construction on two wind farms that are already partly built, including Empire Wind off Long Island and Revolution Wind off Rhode Island.
Meanwhile, these projects have received push back from the courts. In September, a federal judge issued a preliminary ruling to restart construction at Revolution Wind. The judge stated that the Trump administration’s stop-work order threatened “irreparable harm” to its developer. Meanwhile, the administration has also allowed work to restart at Empire Wind, following negotiations with Hochul.
It was after Trump tried to stop construction on an offshore wind farm, visible from one of his golf courses in Scotland 14 years ago, that he disparaged wind power. Despite the major benefits of wind farms, the president calls the wind turbines ugly, inefficient and expensive. Moreover, during his presidential campaign in 2024, he railed against renewable energy, while also promising oil and gas executives that his policy changes would benefit their industry, even when rolling back environmental rules.
In September this year, Trump’s White House took steps to instruct six agencies to draft plans to fight America’s offshore wind industry as it strengthened its attack on wind energy.
