Tong joins other state AGs in lawsuit over Trump’s wind moratorium
DENNIS SCHROEDER / NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
The 800 megawatt plan known as Park City Wind in Bridgeport could be in jeopardy due to inflation and high interest rates. Above, the Block Island Wind Farm, the first U.S. offshore wind farm.
Attorney General William Tong joined his counterparts in more than a dozen states Monday in filing a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s effort to halt the development of wind energy, including projects off the coast of New York and New England.
The lawsuit, which was brought in federal court in Massachusetts, challenged an executive action taken by Trump on his first day in office directing federal officials to stop the leasing of new offshore areas for wind projects, and to cease issuing permits or approvals for turbines either on land or offshore.
Tong was joined in the lawsuit by Democratic attorneys general from New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine — each states that have staked significant resources in harnessing the power of wind blowing off the Atlantic coast — among others.
They’re asking a federal judge to declare the order unlawful and stop federal agencies from implementing it.
“This is yet another lawless effort by Donald Trump to enrich the fossil fuel industry and illegally micromanage state business,” Tong, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. “Connecticut has the right to secure our energy future, and one that makes the most sense for our costs and climate.”
In addition to those states located along the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as the Great Lakes, the lawsuit also includes the landlocked states of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, which objected to the Trump administration’s policies toward on-shore wind.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Democratic attorneys general are “using lawfare to stop the president’s popular energy agenda,” instead of working with him to unleash American energy and lower prices for families.
“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,” Rogers said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Trump vowed during the campaign to end the offshore wind industry if he returned to the White House. His order said there were “alleged legal deficiencies underlying the federal government’s leasing and permitting” of wind projects, and it directed the Interior secretary to review wind leasing and permitting practices for federal waters and lands.
That approach is almost a complete reversal of the policies established by President Joe Biden, whose administration saw offshore wind as a climate change solution, setting national goals, holding lease sales and approving nearly a dozen commercial-scale projects.
At least three of those projects were slated for assembly using the State Pier in New London, which was recently redeveloped into a staging area for offshore wind projects at a cost of more than $300 million.
The first of those projects to be launched from Connecticut, South Fork Wind, went online last year, delivering power to Long Island.
While Trump’s January memorandum did not immediately impact those projects that had already secured federal approval, his administration has since taken more aggressive steps against the industry.
In April, it ordered the Norwegian company Equinor to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully permitted project located southeast of Long Island, N.Y., that is about 30% complete. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it appeared the Biden administration rushed the approval.
Equinor went through a seven-year permitting process before starting to build Empire Wind last year to provide power to 500,000 New York homes. Equinor is considering legal options, which would be separate from the complaint filed Monday. The Norwegian government owns a majority stake in Equinor.
An Interior spokeswoman declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit by the attorneys general Monday but sent a statement saying the department “reaffirms its unwavering commitment to conserving and managing the nation’s natural and cultural resources, upholding tribal trust responsibilities, and overseeing public lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans, while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people.”
The two remaining projects at the Connecticut State Pier, Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind, are being developed by the Danish company Ørsted. A spokesman for the company said both projects are “progressing according to schedule.”
Wind provides about 10% of the electricity generated in the United States, making it the nation’s largest source of renewable energy. Much of that power is currently comes from Texas and the Great Plains, where the flat, windy landscape churns turbines on land.
In New England, the best winds are located off the coasts, creating additional challenges and costs for developers.
Last fall, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration opted not to join its neighbors in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in selecting bids to purchase power from offshore wind projects, citing the potential costs. Even without the participation of Connecticut, however, the power from those turbines would be connected to the New England grid, where it can flow to customers in any of the six states.
Those projects, as well as other wind farms under development in the Atlantic, now face an uncertain future due to Trump’s order.
The attorneys general argued that Trump’s order was at odds with years of bipartisan support for wind energy and contradicted his own declaration of a “national energy emergency,” which called for expanding domestic energy production.
The suit was filed just days after more than 1,500 offshore wind professionals from around the world met in Virginia Beach to discuss the political headwinds offshore wind faces — specifically in the U.S. — as well as its role as a renewable power source that can help the U.S. address growing energy needs. The conference was run by Oceantic Network, a nonprofit that promotes and supports the use and growth of offshore wind and other ocean based energy systems.
“The prevailing sentiment was a lot of anxiety, confusion and — not to say the very least — the amount of business that was represented there and at risk,” said Adrienne Downey, director of offshore wind for Power Advisory LLC and former principal engineer and director of offshore wind at NYSERDA, New York’s energy agency.
Downey said many of the companies in attendance, who are part of the sprawling offshore wind supply chain, came to the conference to see what was actually happening. “The idea of one stroke of the pen upending literally billions of dollars that has been already invested and that that would be instantaneously written off was just incomprehensible,” she said.
While the states’ complaint seeks an injunction in order to reignite offshore wind action, the full legal proceeding could take a long time.
The devastation in terms of jobs already lost has been huge, Downey said. “The point of today is the states coming together and making their commitment to the offshore wind industry and to that supply chain and jobs that have already been jeopardized.”
CT Mirror reporter Jan Ellen Spiegel and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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