On January 12^th, Green Energy Consumers joined a national coalition of regional wind and solar organizations, seeking immediate relief from the Trump administration’s unlawful federal permitting actions that violate the Administrative Procedure Act and arbitrarily and discriminatorily make wind and solar development effectively impossible throughout the country. These arbitrary and capricious actions strike at the heart of New England’s plans to expand the accessibility of affordable clean power. With household electricity bills continuing to sharply rise across the country, consumers should not be barred by the federal government from access to renewable energy.

The lawsuit, known as Renew Northeast et al v. United States Department of the Interior et al., is in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Plaintiffs include RENEW Northeast, Alliance for Clean Energy New York, Renewable Northwest, Southern Renewable Energy Association, Interwest Energy Alliance, Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition, Clean Grid Alliance, Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association, and Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Inc.

The suit is seeking a preliminary injunction against six administrative actions. This “umbrella” suit is intended to prevent the federal government from taking current and future actions that would hinder the processing and issuance of federal renewable energy permits necessary for development.

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) senior political review bottleneck:

Instituted an extraordinary senior-level political review requirement for all wind and solar decisions within its jurisdiction, discouraging projects from even trying to advance wind and solar projects through the DOI permitting process because doing so would be futile.

Department of Interior (DOI) capacity-density mandate: 

Adopted a new “capacity density” mandate for wind and solar projects on federal lands, requiring the agency to evaluate whether a project is an “efficient” use of land based on energy output per acre and essentially rigging the permitting process against wind and solar projects sited on federal lands or in federal water.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Energy-Per-Acre Directive:

Adopted a similar (to DOI) per-acre energy projects requirement when reviewing permits under the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act, also rigging the permitting process against wind and solar projects requiring these permits.

Eagle Take Permit Freeze:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (U.S. FWS) barred wind facilities from obtaining eagle incidental take permits under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act while continuing to allow other energy technologies to seek and receive such permits and engaging in enforcement actions against wind projects for not having permits.

Note: Judge Patti B. Siras removed this permit freeze when she vacated President Trump’s executive wind memorandum on December 8^th, but the U.S. FWS didn’t take down its prohibition on wind seeking general permits, so we included it in our filing. Soon after we filed our complaint, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service removed the notices from its website, but it is still not processing individual permits. In the meantime, clean energy developers are receiving eagle general permits through a self-certification process that the Administration cannot block.

Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC) Access Ban for Wind and Solar:

DOI denied wind and solar developers access to the IPaC system, a publicly funded tool used across industries to identify protected species, thereby preventing developers from qualifying for and obtaining permits for which use of the database is required.

M-Opinion Withdrawal Restricting Offshore Approvals:

DOI withdrew a longstanding legal interpretation governing offshore wind development under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and replaced it with a new standard that  imposes a de facto bar on offshore wind developers obtaining new permits by directing BOEM to adopt a new narrow standard wherein a permit can be disapproved solely on the basis that it has essentially no interference with other “reasonable uses” of the Outer Continental Shelf.

Two separate amicus briefs have been submitted in support of the plaintiffs. One from a coalition of environmental NGOs, and another from twenty states plus the District of Columbia.

Our Position

We are proud to be co-plaintiffs in this unfortunate, but necessary lawsuit. Our states want clean resources because they make energy more affordable and create good jobs. When wind power is allowed to generate, it dramatically reduces the wholesale price of energy in New England, especially in winter. And the same well-documented “price suppression” effect occurs here in the summer thanks to solar power. It does so by reducing both the quantity and price that fossil fuel generators can charge in the ISO-New England market.

We have seen how the five lease suspensions sent to offshore wind developers have been determined to be illegal in the courts. We must end this nonsense once and for all and put consumers first. When projects are seeking permits from the federal government, they should not be stopped because of its bias against renewable energy.