On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the implementation of a number of actions by the federal government that plaintiffs said impeded the development of several solar and wind energy projects around the country.
Denise Casper, a Chief District Judge based in Boston, Massachusetts, issued the interim injunction as requested by the nine industry associations and advocacy groups that filed the lawsuit. In their suit, the groups said the federal administration imposed unlawful impediments that have resulted in several solar and wind projects being halted across the country.
In her ruling, the federal judge expressed her confidence in the ability of the plaintiffs to successfully support their arguments that several federal agencies, including the Department of Interior, implemented unlawful policies that caused developers of renewable energy projects to either cancel or delay many projects in the country.
The ruling issued only applies to the organizations that filed this case. Those groups include the New York-based Alliance for Clean Energy and RENEW Northeast.
This particular ruling comes in the wake of several other such rulings that blamed the Trump administration for taking steps to block proposed wind energy projects from getting federal approval or effectively halting work on similar projects offshore on the U.S. East Coast.
Trump, who campaigned on the “drill, baby, drill!” slogan sought to support fossil fuel projects in a bid to make the United States a major producer of these forms of energy. He consequently pushed for several policy actions that aimed to remove renewable energy from the priority list of federal government support.
As recently as this Monday, Trump cited the Defense Production Act as he signed a number of presidential memorandums related to energy. In those policy documents, Trump wanted to give coal, oil and natural gas additional federal support in what he termed as defense readiness within the country.
In December last year, advocates went to court to block what they referred to as Trump’s efforts to make renewable energy like solar and wind “second class” as proposed energy projects are scrutinized by regulatory bodies. In their suit, the plaintiffs referred to a memorandum signed in July requiring almost each step during the permitting process of clean energy projects to be signed off by Doug Burgum the Interior Secretary and two other senior appointees of the president.
The plaintiffs say such policies sought to make it nearly impossible to develop solar and wind projects yet no explanation had been provided for such a policy direction. They referenced administrative procedure laws that require a suitable explanation to be availed for such a radical action.
Judge Casper agreed with the plaintiffs, saying all the directives attached to the lawsuit didn’t justify or explain the three-level sign off indicated in the memorandums.
Companies like Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) that have vested interests in the solar energy industry in the U.S. will be following the main lawsuit to see how it is decided and the implications it could have on the trajectory of the industry.
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