I'm surprised this isn't receiving wider coverage; I hope that's because the legal pundits don't expect to stand up on appeal, but it's huge if it does

meet your new national energy policy chief, massachusetts judge patti saris

Federal judge strikes down Trump executive order blocking wind energy projects

A federal judge on Monday struck down an order by President Donald Trump that blocked the development of wind energy projects.

Trump issued the order, known as the "Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects," or the Wind Memo, on Jan. 20, 2025. The order directed federal agencies to halt new or renewed permits, leases, rights-of-way and other approvals for onshore and offshore wind energy projects pending the Trump administration’s review of federal wind policy.

Judge Patti Saris, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, struck down the agencies’ implementation of the memo, known as the Wind Order. 

Seventeen states, Washington, D.C., and Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) filed the lawsuit, claiming the order violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). 

Saris agreed and ruled on Monday that the order was "arbitrary and capricious." She also ruled that the freeze itself was "contrary to law," saying that agencies are required to process permits within a reasonable amount of time.

Saris stated in her order that federal agencies failed to offer an explanation for halting the permits beyond the enforcement of the presidential memo. Additionally, she wrote that the agencies did not meaningfully analyze relevant issues before implementing the freeze.

"This scant administrative record makes clear, and the agency defendants do not meaningfully dispute, that the agency defendants have not 'reasonably considered the relevant issues and reasonably explained the[ir] decision' to implement the Wind Order," Saris wrote in her ruling. She added that the defendants "candidly concede that the sole factor they considered in deciding to stop issuing permits was the president’s direction to do so."

Saris vacated the Wind Order in its entirety, effectively ending the nationwide freeze.

Biden can place entire sections of the United States off-limits to oil and gas production by executive order, Trump can’t reverse that using the same executive power? The Supreme Court’ decision in Trump v Slaughter (the case seeking to overrule the “Humphrey’s Executive” decision of 1939) soon enough; slightly different legal issues presented, but a favorable ruling in the latter would be good news f=in this windmill case.