Wind is the United States' largest source of renewable energy, providing about 10% of the electricity generated in the nation

BOSTON — A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump's administration had failed to justify its decision to suspend issuing leases and permits for new wind projects in keeping with the Republican president's wishes.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston sided with a group of 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia in finding that agencies had failed to sufficiently explain why they had indefinitely paused all federal approvals of wind-energy projects .Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.

Saris, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, said an indefinite halt on issuing or denying all authorizations related to wind projects violates a statutory requirement that agencies proceed to conclude matters presented to them "within a reasonable time."

A directive Trump stop issuing permits,

The Departments of the Interior and Commerce, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, had been implementing a directive Trump made on his first day back in office to halt offshore wind lease sales and stop issuing permits, leases and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat whose state led the legal challenge, called the ruling "a big victory in our fight to keep tackling the climate crisis" in a social media post.

An offshore wind energy trade group welcomed the ruling.

"Overturning the unlawful blanket halt to offshore wind permitting activities is needed to achieve our nation's energy and economic priorities of bringing more power online quickly, improving grid reliability, and driving billions of new American steel manufacturing and shipbuilding investments," Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock said in a statement.

Trump has sought to boost government support for fossil fuels 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."

The states, led by New York, sued in May, after the Interior Department ordered Norway's Equinor to halt construction on its Empire Wind offshore wind project off the coast of New York. While the administration allowed work on Empire Wind to resume, the states say the broader pause on permitting and leasing continues to have harmful economic effects.

The coalition

The coalition includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington state and Washington, D.C. They say they’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars collectively to develop wind energy and even more on upgrading transmission lines to bring wind energy to the electrical grid.

Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Defense Fund said wind already supplies more than 10% of U.S. electricity and supports over 130,000 jobs, adding that the moratorium had forced at least seven major offshore projects to pause. California officials noted the state holds five federal offshore leases intended to supply power for roughly 1.6 million homes and warned the freeze could have raised energy costs. New York, which led the lawsuit, has a substantial offshore wind pipeline tied to state climate mandates. 

Wind is the United States' largest source of renewable energy, providing about 10% of the electricity generated in the nation, according to the American Clean Power Association.

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 Wind Energy Permits , Environmental Defense Fund , US Judge ,Donald Trump's administration ,Patti Saris