Seventeen states and the District of Columbia filed suit against President Trump and several federal agencies, challenging a directive that halted federal approvals for new wind-energy projects. Plaintiffs claim the action threatens a vital source of clean energy and job creation within the United States and violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by imposing a substantive policy change without the required notice-and-comment rulemaking. Alliance for Clean Energy New York intervened in support of the plaintiffs and asserted its own claims for declaratory and injunctive relief. Both the states and the intervenor sought preliminary relief.
On June 5, 2025, the court collapsed the preliminary injunction motions with a trial on the merits and directed that the government’s opposition be treated as a motion to dismiss. The court determined that both the states and the intervenor had standing to bring the case, that the pause on wind-energy leasing and permitting constituted final agency action subject to judicial review, and that the directive amounted to a substantive rule requiring notice-and-comment.
