DELMARVA - Delaware and Maryland have joined multiple Democratic-led states in a lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump’s pause on offshore wind development.
In January, Trump signed an executive order provisionally halting any further offshore wind permits, rights of way, renewals, or loans issued during the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration at the time said they would use the pause to review existing leases and whether or not to terminate them.
In April, the Department of the Interior halted an offshore wind project off the coast of New York. Local critics of offshore wind saw the move as a potential sign of similar decisions being made for projects off Delmarva’s coast.
On Monday, May 5, 17 states including Delaware and Maryland filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Massachusetts challenging Trump’s pause.
“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,” the suit reads.
The 17 states are asking the federal court to declare Trump’s executive order unlawful, arguing the offshore wind projects are critical to their economic vitality, energy mix, public health, and climate goals.
The states further argue that the Trump Administration offered no explanation for the sudden halt on wind energy permitting.
The Trump administration referred to the legal challenge as “lawfare.”
“The American people voted for the president to restore America’s energy dominance, and Americans in blue states should not have to pay the price of the Democrats’ radical climate agenda,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown both signed onto the lawsuit. The other states part of the coalition include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Washington, D.C.
Here on Delmarva, legal challenges continue to swirl around alternative energy company US Wind’s proposed project off of Worcester and Sussex Counties. Ocean City, Fenwick Island, and other local stakeholders currently have an active lawsuit against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to challenge the Biden Administration’s approval of the project.