In a move to disrupt President Donald Trump’s anti-wind agenda, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and colleagues from across the country are suing the Trump administration over its efforts to block the offshore wind industry.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court, is a collaborative effort by the attorneys general from multiple states against what Campbell’s office described as the Trump administration’s “unlawful attempt to freeze the development of wind energy.”
The attorneys general are asking the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts to rule President Donald Trump’s directives against offshore wind as illegal and to prevent his administration from taking more action to delay or prevent wind energy development.
“Massachusetts has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into offshore wind to ensure our residents have access to well-paying green jobs and reliable, affordable energy that helps meet our clean energy and climate goals,” Campbell said in the release. “The president’s attempts to stop homegrown wind energy development directly contradict his claims that there is a growing need for reliable domestic energy. My colleagues and I will continue to challenge this administration’s unlawful actions to chill investment and growth of this critical industry.”
Trump and 12 other officials in his administration, including U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, were named as defendants in the suit.
Trump has been open about his opposition to wind energy development, and has declared that the U.S. will bolster domestic fossil fuel production. On the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order halting the approval of new permits at new lease areas for offshore wind, and providing a path to possibly terminate other projects with permitting underway; the order has even led to the halt of a fully permitted offshore wind project.
“Instead of working with President Trump to unleash American energy and lower prices for American families, Democrat attorneys general are using lawfare to stop the President’s popular energy agenda,” Taylor Rogers, White House assistant press secretary, said in an email. “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.”
The attorneys general allege in their lawsuit that Trump’s orders against the offshore wind industry harm their states’ efforts to “secure reliable, diversified, and affordable sources” of renewable energy to meet rising electricity demands and help reduce carbon emissions, meet clean energy goals, and address climate change. Additionally, they allege Trump’s orders threaten to “thwart” the states’ billions of dollars’ worth of investments into wind industry infrastructure, supply chains, and workforce development.
The attorneys general also allege the Trump administration’s “categorically and indefinitely halting” wind energy development without a proper explanation violates multiple federal laws and procedures. The attorneys general also say the administration’s actions reverse “longstanding federal policy” and are “inconsistent with recent federal action propping up other forms of energy.”
Campbell is joined by attorneys general from 16 other states, including California and New York, and the District of Columbia, in the most recent lawsuit.
There are several offshore wind projects planned to make landfall in Massachusetts, including those of Vineyard Wind. under construction 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, New England Wind, which has completed federal approval, and SouthCoast Wind, whose company officials announced in February that the project’s construction start would be delayed by four years. Projects under construction south of the Vineyard include Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, although they will make landfall in Rhode Island and New York, respectively.
The offshore wind industry is no stranger to legal challenges, with several organizations petitioning their cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. Still, whether the justices will actually hear the cases is uncertain. E&E, an environmental news site run by Politico, reported on Monday that the Supreme Court declined to hear the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance’s challenge against Vineyard Wind.
Another frivolous lawsuit which will not go anywhere. He can permit and decline permits Just like Biden cut permits of oil exploration.
I am no fan of Donald Trump. I am also no fan of Off-Shore Windfarms. Ms. Andrea Campbell I voted for you in the last election, please do not participate in this law suit. We have not yet seen the damage that these Windmills will create overtime. Every Electrical Power Generator has a definitive lifespan, when they come to the end of their operating life, things start to break and leak. On land its simple to dismantle, but in the Ocean it is not. We have not yet seen the damage and the problems they will cause when these Electrical Generators come to then end of their life cycle.
Please do not support this Law Suit.
Most of us do not want these industrial wind farms off our sea coasts. Please please please stop them! Thank goodness someone is trying to stop them. They are an inefficient source of energy and are predicted to be defunct within a couple decades! Very costly, environmentally damaging to sea life and a true eyesore! They are the opposite of “green” energy. Many of us have been trying to stop them and our concerns fall on deaf ears. It’s very disturbing and sickening. People trying to profit off of exploiting our oceans. Follow the money. Good riddance!
what is the preferred energy alternative
coal and nat gas “exploit” our planet, too…
where is the scientific data on damage to sea life ? Seems the microplastics are doing a better job at that
Is this an argument for nuclear , and do we now see this as risk -free ?
The oil and coal industries are clamoring to turn their real estate assets into something more profitable.
It costs more than $35 Billion to convert an old coal plant into a nuclear plant.
Nuclear is NOT emissions free.
The electric transmission lines already exist, connecting the old coal plants to the grid.
However: if we put solar on every roof, we don’t need a transmission line system. And all the wind turbines at this point in time produce electricity that can be used locally in the grid.
NO nuclear. It isn’t ethical to produce nuclear waste for future generations to care for and protect.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/new-agreements-put-utah-at-heart-of-regional-smr-ecosystem
https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/role-nuclear-power-energy-mix-reducing-greenhouse-gas-emissions/#:~:text=Nuclear%20power%20has%20a%20minimal,(gCO2%2FKWh).
Jennifer,
Every poll tells us that the opposite is true. 70% of Massachusetts residents are for Wind Farms.
Source for your data? Perhaps you are correct, there are a lot of moonbats in this state.
When you actually go put there and see these huge contraptions littering what used to be a beautiful peaceful ocean. When you
See the damage caused by pounding the crap out of the sea floor and the whales, dolphins sharks and other fish belly up.
You will cry.
Wait for the real disaster- the first real hurricane, the perfect storm nor’easter, or the inevitable mechanical failures to come.
What will you tell us then – oh well – i didn’t know?
When you actually go out there and see these huge contraptions littering what used to be a beautiful peaceful ocean. When you see the damage caused by pounding the crap out of the sea floor and the whales, dolphins sharks and other fish belly up.
You will cry.
When you go to the Gulf of Trump and see pounding the crap out of the sea floor to install oil production platforms.
The whales, dolphins sharks and other fish are mostly gone.
Dan, the Chinese are going to eat our lunch. They know that wind is an amazing source of electricity, that’s why they have the most wind turbines, the biggest wind turbines, even wind turbines that live in the ocean and gather electricity during a hurricane. We spend about 2 Trillion per year for fossil fuels. The Chinese are on track to become all renewable energy. What will the Chinese buy with their spare 2 Trillion? A bigger army? foreign ports? more renewable energy? manufacturing capacity? social programs (health benefits)? Luxury goods?
Meanwhile, over in the US trump is forcing us to use 2 Trillion per year for fossil fuels. What a waste.
The People have filed over 200 federal lawsuits against the Trump Administration in his first 100 days of the second term. That is a record exceeding all others by far. This lawsuit will likely be another failure because it is not based on law or good science.
Well, I suppose the wind project for green energy won’t stop until all the whales are dead. Or unless Donald Trump is successful in shutting it down, which is a better plan?
Tell me where your loyalty lays.
The wind project is such a lie. My loyalty is to nature. And as far as I can tell, even people involved in the green project are only trying to line their pockets at the expense of the ocean, the beaches, the marine life, and our children who play on the shore.
And now we know who the attorney general cares more about. I would say big business over environment as has been demonstrated by the actions to try to keep the wind project alive.
Kill the wind project before it kills another whale.
Stop dumping bleach into our ocean. That should be a federal crime.
NO to OSW. What Klaus & Jennifer said . . .
Please call the AG’s office — (617) 727-2200 — and request that she does not pursue this lawsuit. Save the whales!
I’m convinced that half the big houses and big boats belong to people who make their money from fossil fuels
Ms Hansen if you were to ban fossil fuels you would not have a house to live in or clothes to wear or food to eat or cars to drive. You wouldnt have your computer or Iphone. You wouldnt have the ink to print the MVTimes. You could wear burlap and leather sandals and scrounge for plants and worms to eat. You could go back a few hundred years and live like that. Nuclear is not a moral question or an ethical one. By the way where do we get our morality? Wind farms and solar are not enough for sustainable power.
I am really struck by how big a shift the construction of the first large-scale wind farms has made in public attitudes. It used to be that no one on the island other than a handful of folks were opposed to the massively subsidized industrialization of our pristine and highly productive near coastal waters. So many people bought the propaganda about this being “clean low cost power.” Sadly it is only going to get worse as all of the costs from this folly start to hit consumers. There is pretty good evidence that the recent power failures that knocked out most of the grid in Spain and Portugal was triggered by the relatively high proportion of wind and solar generation in their supply mix. Not enough attention was paid to the impact on the stability of the grid without the “flywheel” effect of traditional generating plants. It’s a problem that can be solved — but it will be costly. The politicians who pushed offshore wind will be gone when the bills arrive. The attorney general is just wasting more of our money with this lawsuit.
I read somewhere ( possibly in the Atlantic ? ) a while back that the ideal balance of energy in the USA would be solar, wind, and natural gas.
Wind farms are best used on land due to the corrosion factor that salt water and storms present. I’m sure there are situations with land based windmills too….after all, storms aren’t limited to water, but ocean based windmills do damage to the marine life environment.
Just another opinion….
Ocean based oil wells do damage to the marine life environment.
They are out in the ocean because of NIMBYISM.
WHEN ON THE MVC..Iwas the 1 vote AGAINST this fiasco-they DID NOT HAVE A BOND-THIS WILL NEVER WORK HERE.too bad? Trump is right as rain on this one sorry-he is saving us money-maybe that giant beach road site could be our town hall ?no more pressure on housing- fusion is near for Gods sake its already old fashion” DO YOU KNOW”cart before the horse'”more coal is being burned to keep up with electric cars than ever before -if you have a gas stove you can cook AND heat when power goes off-HAVE A NICE DAY..ta ta…..trip
You are right, Trip. This thing has not been thought through. Many of the most ardentn supporters of renewable energy do not understand the basic physics of the electricity grid.
Actually, there is no “energy transition”—the actual relationship between “traditional” and “new” energy sources is symbiosis, not replacement. Throughout history, new energy sources have actually required the use of MORE of the previous energy sources.
A French historian of energy use, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, writing in the London Review of Books, quotes the Chinese envoy to the 2023 COP: “It [is] unrealistic’ to eliminate fossil fuels that are used to maintain grid stability.” The recent major blackout on the Iberian peninsula was very likely due to unstable grid conditions. Critics of renewables have been pointing out this problem of physics, ignored by net zero zealots, for decades. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost. Fressoz continues: “Even in the countries that are the ‘real leaders’ in decarbonisation, the energy mix remains dominated by fossil fuels. . . .”
You can read Fressoz’s letter at the link below, in which he corrects Adam Tooze, the reviewer of his book, for his misunderstanding of how energy actually works and of what Fressoz actually wrote:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n02/letters
Well said.
The Biden generation.
Because of the Time’s lame comment “policy” , I will address a few of the comments here at once . First, the president does not have the legal authority to arbitrarily shut down fully vetted and federally approved projects.. He can slow down the issuances of leases and environmental reviews, like Obama and Biden did. As for citing sources of widespread support for offshore wind– Here’s just one– https://chestertownspy.org/2025/02/20/new-polling-finds-strong-eastern-shore-support-for-offshore-wind/ As for whales— give it up— windmills do not kill whales — never have and never will. But as one commenter on this topic said — “there are a lot of moonbats in this state”. Coal accounts for less than .5% of electricity in New England.(note the decimal point — Decommissioning— I don’t know if people who bring this up ever actually think about it. Decommissioning a nuclear plant is not easy. We saw what it took to decommission the Brandt Point coal burner. When the Sagamore plant gets “decommissioned” we will simply crunch it up and out it in a landfill. — Everyone should love that. So with V.W , 90% of what is out there is easily recycled American steel– at today’s market price, it’s worth $63 million as scrap steel.
Some may view the 5 fold increase in marine mammal carcasses on Vineyard beaches since construction of wind towers as evidence of some link to the deaths.
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