US judge halts Trump admin’s blockade on new wind and solar projects

Of the five agency actions that were struck down, the most sweeping is what the coalition calls Interior’s ​“senior political review bottleneck,” which included the July 2025 directive requiring Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to review all decisions related to wind and solar projects. That memo listed nearly 70 types of permits and other items that would need Burgum’s personal sign-off, adding cost, time, and significant uncertainty to projects. 

In a related effort, Interior prohibited wind and solar developers from using an online government planning tool that helps streamline environmental reviews, a move that created yet more costs and complexities for companies. As of Tuesday evening, Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website still said renewable projects ​“are currently not eligible” to use the tool. 

Other measures stopped by Tuesday’s injunction include two similar directives from Interior and from the Army Corps, which provides permits for energy projects near navigable waters. Those policies call for prioritizing projects that generate the most energy per acre, an approach that favors coal, oil, and fossil gas and undercuts renewables — and is rooted in fossil-fuel industry misinformation.

The federal judge also blocked Interior’s new legal interpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that critics say essentially bars developers of offshore wind projects from obtaining new permits. 

An Interior spokesperson told the Associated Press that the department does not comment on litigation, but said, ​“America sets the global standard for energy production. We do it cleaner, safer, and more reliably than anywhere in the world.”

For clean energy proponents, the judge’s decision offers important affirmation that the Trump administration’s broad attacks against renewables don’t hold up under scrutiny.

“This series of lawsuits is building a solid record of legal decisions that prove that contract law is valid here in the U.S.,” Stephanie Francoeur of Oceantic Network, a trade group that advocates for offshore wind, told Canary Media. ​“It also provides developers and the supply chain a path forward to defend their investments, to protect jobs, and to drive energy prices down.”