Saving Seafood

US judge weighs if Trump administration can lawfully halt wind projects

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.”

Read the full article at Reuters

The Feds Had Questions. Court Filings Claim Revolution Wind Developers Didn’t Answer Them

September 17, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s opposition to offshore wind crystallized long before he won re-election. But the justification for the administration’s abrupt halt to the Revolution Wind project on Aug. 22 has remained murky.

Until now.

New court filings from the U.S. Department of Justice reveal the rationale behind the U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) decision to shut down the 65-turbine project that was already 80% finished: Developers allegedly failed to turn in required plans on how the project off Rhode Island’s coastline would affect national ocean research and defense work.

“As of the date of this Declaration, still DOI not received any information that these requirements have been satisfied and given how long they remain pending, the department has concerns as to whether they will ever be met,” Adam Suess, acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management for the Interior Department, wrote in a Sept. 12 affidavit.

Suess’ written testimony counters the criticism from state officials and project developers accusing the Trump administration of arbitrary and unlawful abuses of power in a pair of federal lawsuits filed Sept. 4.

Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables, co-developers of the $5 billion wind project, filed their lawsuit against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other federal agencies and directors in D.C., while attorneys general in Rhode Island and Connecticut took their legal challenge to Rhode Island federal court. The two southern New England states were under contracts to buy electricity from the 704-megawatt project starting next year. Now in limbo, thousands of labor jobs are on the line, along with both states’ abilities to meet their climate change mandates and the reliability of the regional electric grid.

Read the full article at Rhode Island PBS

NEW JERSEY: Federal Action on Wind Energy Fuels Save LBI Agenda

August 28, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Interior’s recent announcement it is launching a full evaluation of offshore wind regulations is being lauded by a local grassroots organization.

“This reform effort is a clear response to concerns we raised in our July 2025 petition calling for the cancellation of Atlantic Shores North and South areas of the coast off Long Beach Island, Brigantine and Atlantic City,” Bob Stern, president and co-founder of Save LBI, said.

Stern thanked Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum for his initiative in revisiting the regulatory guidelines he said failed communities and the environment.

In an Aug. 11 missive to the interior department, Stern urged early stakeholder involvement through the advance notice of proposed rule making, saying it would provide the community, scientists, local government and others the ability to be part of the process while new guidelines are being developed.

Among the key areas to be reimagined are defining what areas are off limits for wind development based on criteria that includes distance from military radar, whale migration and shoreline; requiring project proposals to link location and design with a singular environmental impact statement treating all proposals in a region as alternatives; strengthening marine mammal protection and require decommissioning plans for turbine removal.

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

Trump adds new level of scrutiny to wind and solar projects

July 18, 2025 — The Interior Department said Thursday that it would add additional layers of review for wind and solar energy projects, following President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending any “preferential treatment” for renewable energy.

The new requirement threatens to trip up the approval process as wind and solar projects race to begin construction by a deadline next July to qualify for tax credits, which have been gutted by Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill that Congress approved this month. The department’s policies apply to projects on federal lands and waters, but generally not to those on private property.

Also on Thursday, Trump issued a proclamation exempting several coal plants in Ohio, Colorado and Illinois from stricter Biden-era rules limiting mercury and other toxic emissions through 2029.

“The Federal Government plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the Nation’s power supply remains secure and reliable,” the proclamation said. “Forcing energy producers to comply with unattainable emissions controls jeopardizes this mission.”

Separate proclamations gave exemptions from toxic emissions rules to 25 chemical manufacturers including Shell Chemical and to certain iron ore processing facilities, including two operated by the U.S. Steel Corporation.

Read the full article at The Washington Post

Interior finishes review of Maryland offshore wind project

July 30, 2024 — The Interior Department released a final environmental review Monday of what could be the first offshore wind farm off the coast of Maryland, noting its potential to disturb fisheries and marine life.

Developed by US Wind, the three-phase wind array could power up to 770,000 homes, if approved by the Biden administration.

The final environmental analysis released Monday brings the project closer to that green light. If approved, the project would be the 10th offshore wind array advanced by the Biden administration. The White House aims to reach 16 approved offshore wind projects by the end of the year to fuel its goal of installing enough offshore wind to power 10 million U.S. homes by the end of the decade.

Read the full article at E&E News

Biden elects not to enact vaquita-related trade embargo on Mexico

July 19, 2023 — U.S. President Joe Biden will not issue an embargo on Mexican wildlife products, which he was entitled to do after Mexico was found in breach of a U.S. law requiring federal action against countries found to be violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Department of Fish and Wildlife found Mexico in breach of the Pelly Amendment in May 2023, requiring Biden to decide whether to take punitive trade action against Mexico or explain his reason for not doing so. Mexico has not adequately protected the critically endangered totoaba from fishing or trading, which has “diminished the effectiveness” of CITES, according to the declaration. Illegal fishing for the totoaba has also resulted in the deaths of numerous critically endangered vaquita porpoises.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

U.S. Department of Interior Jump Starts Vineyard Wind, Inking Final Environmental Impact Statement

March 10, 2021 — In a major boost for Vineyard Wind, the U.S. Department of Interior announced Monday that a long-awaited environmental analysis of the plan to build the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm 12 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard is complete.

The announcement signals a sea change in the outlook for the emerging offshore wind industry under the Biden administration, and it puts the $2 billion Vineyard Wind I project solidly back on track to be first in the race to harness hundreds of square miles of ocean for the development of renewable energy.

“The United States is poised to become a global clean energy leader,” said Laura Daniel Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, in a press release Monday.

Completed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the final environmental impact statement is due to be published in the Federal Register later this week, the announcement said.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette