MA Judge Rules Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban ‘Contrary to Law’ – HotAir

If anyone thought that the jurist cadre was going to stick to interfering only in immigration matters, federal employees firing disputes, and whether Alina Hubbahubba should be a US Attorney, boy – were you wrong.





Where would we be without activist judges in blue states?

Oh, much happier, warmer, and wealthier for starters, right?

Well, now they’ve entered the environmental mortal combat ring, and, while I guess we should have expected it, it’s a bummer nonetheless.

On his very first day in office, one of the very first executive orders President Trump signed was one that called a temporary halt to all offshore wind projects and leasing until a thorough review of each project could be initiated.

…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

Section 1.  Temporary Withdrawal of Areas.  Consistent with the principles of responsible public stewardship that are entrusted to this office, with due consideration for a variety of relevant factors, including the need to foster an energy economy capable of meeting the country’s growing demand for reliable energy, the importance of marine life, impacts on ocean currents and wind patterns, effects on energy costs for Americans –- especially those who can least afford it –- and to ensure that the United States is able to maintain a robust fishing industry for future generations and provide low cost energy to its citizens, I hereby direct as follows:

Under the authority granted to me in section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1341(a), I hereby withdraw from disposition for wind energy leasing all areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS) as defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331.  This withdrawal shall go into effect beginning on January 21, 2025, and shall remain in effect until this Presidential Memorandum is revoked.

To the extent that an area is already withdrawn from disposition for wind energy leasing, the area’s withdrawal is extended for a time period beginning on January 21, 2025, until this Presidential Memorandum is revoked.





The screeching that commenced at this EO was enormous, as you might imagine, given the Biden administration’s dedication of a tremendous amount of government resources, favorable permitting, surveys, and billions of dollars’ worth in loans and guarantees to the flailing industry. 

Seventeen states sued the Trump administration in May, challenging the temporary halt and review, and two days ago, a Massachusetts judge issued a ruling in their favor using what seems to be some pretty questionable reasoning.

The judge ‘tossed out’ the president’s EO ‘in its entirety.’

Well, la dee dah. Isn’t she special?

A federal judge on Monday struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping ban on new wind power projects in the U.S., a major victory for an industry that has been singled out by the White House since the administration’s first day.

Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that Trump’s ban is “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law,” tossing out the president’s action in its entirety.

Trump issued a memorandum on Jan. 20 halting permits and leases for offshore and onshore wind farms, pending federal review. Saris said that federal agencies had failed to provide a reasoned explanation for such a drastic change in U.S. policy.

Seventeen states led by New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump in May to overturn the president’s ban. They argued it created “an existential threat to the wind industry.”

Letitia James, of mortgage fraud fame, took a victory lap.





While other folks were wondering what it was about activist progressive judges that has suddenly imbued them with god complexes in a federal republic

As for the plaintiff states’ argument that the Trump EO is an existential threat to the wind industry, I would offer that the wind industry’s own inefficiency and graft is its own and worst existential threat.

It’s collapsing in on itself and taking economies committed to it down all over the world, because a pyramid scheme built on unicorn farts cannot sustain itself.

My favorite renewable whipping boy, Germany, has found out yet again that the only thing reliable about renewables is how they will invariably bite you in the ass.

But like every hardcore addict, the Germans can’t ever outright quit when it bites them – they just cut back some more again.





Germany Scales Back Offshore Wind Auctions After Latest Flop

Germany moved to reduce the capacity it will auction in its offshore wind tender in 2026, following the flop in the latest auction without a single bid made.  

The German Parliament approved legislation narrowing the capacity in the 2026 tender to just 2.5 gigawatts (GW) to 5 GW, compared with an earlier plan of auctioning off 6 GW of offshore wind capacity and with as much as 10 GW offered in the auction in August. 

The August offshore wind auction without government subsidies failed to attract a single bid, alarming the local offshore wind sector, which is calling for a fundamental redesign of Germany’s renewable energy auctions. 

The Federal Network Agency’s auction for 10.1 GW offshore wind farms in the German part of the North Sea ended with no investor submitting a bid for any of the two proposed sites, the Federal Association for Offshore Wind Energy, BWO, said.  

The auction flop signals that offshore wind power developers are wary of taking on riskier, zero-subsidy projects amid rising costs and supply chain issues.

The New England Independent Systems Operator (ISO), which is the regional transmission organization (RTO) for the six NE states – Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont – found itself with a rude wake-up call when it finally had to do the #mathz. Calculating what sort of offshore wind farms it would need to hit the green transition targets the lunatic NE governors like Maura Healey are bleating about and legislating into actionable dates meant coming up with some breathtaking numbers.





And about those never-ending ‘renewable is cheaper and affordable‘ lies?

FUGGEDABOUDIT

…Then reality hit. 

•  ISO-New England crunched the numbers: to deliver all the promised offshore wind power, you’d have to cover an area of ocean the size of Connecticut… with nothing but wind turbines. 

•  A month later, Scandinavian researchers said “actually make it two Connecticuts” because wake turbulence kills the output of downwind turbines 

•  Result? The wholesale industrialization of our fisheries and coastline for power that costs 3–5× what we pay today 

•  Every major offshore wind developer on the world has bailed, projects are being canceled left and right, and even with massive subsidies the math still doesn’t work 

Yet Augusta keeps pretending the plan is fine without its #1 power source. If offshore wind is dead (and it is), the entire “net-zero by 2050” house of cards collapses. 

Time to tell the emperor she has no clothes.

But these are the people wasting more of their states’ tax dollars to sue the Trump administration in order to continue a lost cause, and the judges who are indulging them. 





Speaking of turbines already IN Massachusetts waters that have caused all sorts of chaos already…how’s that going lately? 

How about that?

The only thing spinning is frantic Green gifters.


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