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The Trump administration has appealed a December ruling that struck down a presidential memorandum barring offshore wind leasing and permitting.
Judge Patti B. Saris had declared the wind memo, issued by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office, unlawful. But on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal.
It comes one week after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the administration would “absolutely” appeal other court rulings issued in January and February that lifted the federal suspension orders on five under-construction offshore wind projects, including Vineyard Wind.
Those suspensions were issued shortly after Saris’ ruling on the wind memo. At this time, the federal government has not appealed those project-specific lawsuits.
“President Trump has been clear: wind energy is the scam of the century. For years, Americans have been forced to pay billions more for the least reliable source of energy. The Trump administration has paused the construction of all large-scale offshore wind projects because our number one priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people,” said Taylor Rogers, White House spokesperson, in an email Wednesday. “The Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”
More than a dozen states, including Massachusetts, sued the Trump administration last May over the memo, which froze all project permitting for months pending an indefinite review by federal agencies.
It doesn’t appear that the December ruling spurred the activity that developers and the states were hoping for — that is, the issuance of permits and approvals from agencies like NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management after almost one year of delays.
Saris’ ruling did not order a particular outcome, such as the agencies approving a permit request. Rather, the order regards agencies processing permits and making a determination one way or the other within a reasonable time, as required under statute.
BOEM did not immediately respond to an inquiry on whether it has issued any permits to offshore wind projects since the December ruling. A spokesperson for NOAA in an email said the agency has not issued incidental take authorizations, a requisite permit for offshore wind construction, “following the President’s memo related to offshore wind.”
According to court filings and the government’s permitting dashboard, one stalled Massachusetts project, SouthCoast Wind, hasn’t received any new permits from the federal government since Trump took office.
Instead, the proposed project is contending with a request by the federal government that could result in the rescission of a previously granted permit.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, which argued on behalf of the states in Boston’s federal courthouse last fall, declined to comment.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
