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Judge finds flaws in motion for an injunction against Trump’s wind turbine order
By: Justin Ward
“The plaintiffs need to return to court with more details about specific harms to specific projects in specific states,” said Judge William Young.
The outlook does not look good for a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s effective freeze on new wind turbine production. A federal judge canceled a hearing on the plaintiffs’ proposed temporary injunction this week, citing a lack of “specificity” about the harms experienced by the states that brought the suit.
The District Court of Massachusetts will hear the Trump Administration’s motion to dismiss next week. The federal judge’s statements have largely aligned with the Department of Justice’s arguments, so it’s likely that the administration will prevail.
While Judge William Young acknowledged that wind power was an “important industry” and Trump’s hostility to wind was “indisputable,” he said the plaintiffs, which include more than a dozen states, need to return to court with more details about “specific harms to specific projects in specific states.”
Young recognized that if the administration has the power to grant licenses, it is also entitled to withhold them. Trump’s executive order, issued in the first weeks of his term, places a hold on new offshore wind power permits, pending a review. The order does not provide a timeline for that review to be complete, so it would amount to an indefinite freeze on all new wind power in practice.
Trump’s crusade against wind power started during his first term. He has claimed that wind turbines are “kill[ing] the birds” and “driving the whales crazy.” Environmental groups refuted this and other claims in their amicus brief last month, noting that “cats are responsible for thousands of times more bird deaths than are wind turbines.”
However, if the lawsuit does survive next week’s hearing and secures an injunction, legal experts say it will be mostly a symbolic victory because the federal agency that issues permits still has discretion over the speed at which it works, so a freeze will be replaced by a de facto pause.