November 19, 2025 — A federal judge on Tuesday wrestled with whether President Donald Trump‘s administration had acted lawfully when it halted permitting of new wind projects nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, during a hearing in Boston in a lawsuit by 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, questioned whether federal agencies could lawfully implement the Trump-directed pause by “simply saying the president told me to do it.”
The U.S. Departments of Commerce and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency had all acted to implement a directive the president made on his first day back in office on January 20 to halt offshore wind lease sales and stop issuing permits, leases and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.
He issued that directive while also moving to ramp up the federal government’s support for the fossil fuel industry and maximize output in the United States, the world’s top oil and gas producer, after campaigning for the presidency on the refrain of “drill, baby, drill.”
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