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Press Release:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion for Halt­ing Devel­op­ment of Wind Ener­gy

Preceding Event:

On Jan. 20, 2025, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump issued a Pres­i­den­tial Mem­o­ran­dum that halt­ed all fed­er­al approvals nec­es­sary for the devel­op­ment of on and off­shore wind ener­gy projects. All agen­cies halt­ed the per­mit­ting process, and even stopped a ful­ly per­mit­ted project cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion in New York.

General Overview:

Accord­ing to the release from May 5, 2025, “Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Tong today joined a coali­tion of 18 attor­neys gen­er­al in fil­ing a law­suit against the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion over its unlaw­ful attempt to freeze the devel­op­ment of wind ener­gy.”

They argued the action vio­lates the Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ce­dures Act in that it gives no expla­na­tion for cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly and indef­i­nite­ly halt­ing all wind ener­gy projects.

“In fil­ing this law­suit, the attor­neys gen­er­al are ask­ing the Court to declare the President’s direc­tive ille­gal and pre­vent the Admin­is­tra­tion from tak­ing any action to delay or pre­vent wind ener­gy devel­op­ment,” the release said.

Connecticut Nexus:

An RPS is a Renew­able Port­fo­lio Stan­dard, is a reg­u­la­to­ry man­date that requires util­i­ty com­pa­nies to derive a cer­tain per­cent­age of their ener­gy from renew­able resources such as wind, water and solar. Accord­ing to the suit, “Con­necti­cut has had an RPS in some form since 1998. The RPS requires elec­tric sup­pli­ers to obtain a spec­i­fied per­cent­age of the ener­gy they sell or dis­trib­ute to Con­necti­cut cus­tomers from renew­able sources through the pur­chase of Renew­able Ener­gy Cer­tifi­cates (RECs).” Con­necti­cut has also passed stat­ues requir­ing the reduc­tion of green­house gas emis­sions. Both of these things are poten­tial­ly impact­ed by this mem­o­ran­dum to stop devel­op­ment of wind ener­gy projects.

Date of filing:

May 5, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-11221

Case title:

State of New York et al v. Trump et al

Plaintiffs: 18 states

• STATE OF NEW YORK;
• COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS;
• STATE OF ARIZONA;
• STATE OF CALIFORNIA;
• STATE OF COLORADO;
• STATE OF CONNECTICUT;
• STATE OF DELAWARE;
• DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA;
• STATE OF ILLINOIS;
• STATE OF MAINE;
• STATE OF MARYLAND;
• THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN;
• STATE OF MINNESOTA;
• STATE OF NEW JERSEY;
• STATE OF NEW MEXICO;
• STATE OF OREGON;
• STATE OF RHODE ISLAND;
• STATE OF WASHINGTON

Defendants:

• DONALD J. TRUMP, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States;
• UNITED STATES OF AMERICA;
• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR;
• DOUGLAS BURGUM, Sec­re­tary of the Inte­ri­or, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT;
• WALTER CRUICKSHANK, Act­ing Direc­tor of Bureau of Ocean Ener­gy Man­age­ment, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT;
• JONATHAN RABY, State Direc­tor of the Bureau of Land Man­age­ment, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE;
• PAUL SOUZA, Region­al Direc­tor of the Unit­ed States Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE;
• HOWARD LUTNICK, Sec­re­tary of Com­merce, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION;
• LAURA GRIMM, Chief of Staff of the Nation­al Ocean­ic and Atmos­pher­ic Admin­is­tra­tion, in her offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE;
• EUGENIO PIÑEIRO SOLER, Direc­tor of the Nation­al Marine Fish­eries Ser­vice, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• UNITED STATES ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS;
• LIEUTENANT GENERAL WILLIAM H. “BUTCH” GRAHAM, JR., Chief of Engi­neers for the Unit­ed States Army Corps of Engi­neers, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY;
• LEE ZELDIN, Admin­is­tra­tor of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE;
• BROOKE ROLLINS, Sec­re­tary of Agri­cul­ture, in her offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY;
• CHRIS WRIGHT, Sec­re­tary of Ener­gy, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty;
• DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY; and
• SCOTT BESSENT, Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty,

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

OPEN
Last fil­ing: Nov. 24, 2025

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