Attorney General Tong Secures Court Victory Preventing Trump Administration from Halting Federal Wind Energy Permitting

Press Releases

12/09/2025

Attorney General Tong Secures Court Victory Preventing Trump Administration from Halting Federal Wind Energy Permitting

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong and a coalition of 18 attorneys general on Monday won their lawsuit blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful order to freeze all federal permitting of wind energy projects, the latest legal victory against Trump’s arbitrary attacks on affordable, renewable energy.

“Trump’s erratic attacks on wind energy and his bizarre rants about windmills never made any sense. He was going to jack up energy costs for American families and businesses, further our reliance on fossil fuels and foreign oil, and throw workers off good jobs. We sued, we won, and I’m going to keep fighting to protect Connecticut’s ability to secure our own energy future that makes sense for our costs and climate,” said Attorney General Tong.

In May, Attorney General Tong and the coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s decision to indefinitely halt all federal approvals necessary for the development of offshore and onshore wind energy projects pending federal review. On Monday, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated those actions, ruling that they were arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.

On January 20, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum that, among other things, indefinitely froze all federal approvals needed for the development of wind energy projects pending federal review. Pursuant to this directive, federal agencies stopped all permitting and approval activities.

In their lawsuit, the attorneys general alleged that the federal agencies’ actions harmed their states’ efforts to secure reliable, diversified, and affordable sources of energy to meet their increasing demand for electricity and help reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants, meet clean energy goals, and address climate change. The agencies’ actions also threatened to thwart billions of dollars of states’ investments in wind industry infrastructure, supply chains, and workforce development.

The coalition argued that federal agencies’ actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act and other federal laws because the agencies, among other things, provided no reasoned explanation for categorically and indefinitely halting all wind energy approvals. The lawsuit also argued that the abrupt halt on all permitting violated numerous federal statutes that prescribe specific procedures and timelines for federal permitting and approvals—procedures the Administration wholly disregarded in stopping wind-energy development altogether.

Attorney General Tong was joined in this matter the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.

This is the latest legal defeat for the Trump Administration’s lawless attacks on wind energy. Connecticut and Rhode Island successfully sued the Trump Administration in September to block a baseless stop work order that had halted construction on Revolution Wind.

Located fifteen nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island, Revolution Wind is a wind energy facility expected to deliver enough electricity to the New England grid to power 350,000 homes, or 2.5 percent of the region’s electricity supply beginning in 2026. Revolution Wind is projected to save Connecticut and Rhode Island ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years. The Revolution Wind project supports over 2,500 jobs nationwide in the construction, operations, shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors, including over 1,000 union construction jobs. The project has been vetted and approved through every layer of the federal and state regulatory process and is supported by binding contracts and legal mandates. Construction is nearly complete.

Assistant Attorney General Jill Lacedonia and Deputy Associate Attorney General Matthew Levine assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
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