A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to halt federal approvals for wind and solar projects.
Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction on April 21, sought by a coalition of renewable energy groups.
The injunction blocks five specified agency action measures, including Interior review rules, a wildlife permitting ban, land-use limits, an Army Corps memo, and a legal opinion that had tightened permitting and slowed wind and solar approvals.
The judge said the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on the merits of their claims” that the Interior Department and other agencies adopted policies that violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how U.S. agencies make and justify policy decisions.
Her ruling applies to members of the plaintiff organizations, which include RENEW Northeast and Alliance for Clean Energy New York.
“This is an undeniable victory for members of our coalition and the broader clean energy industry, as well as American households and businesses,” the groups said in a joint statement.
The Interior Department said in a statement that while it does not comment on litigation, “America sets the global standard for energy production.”
The president also signed memos aimed at boosting domestic petroleum production, enhancing grid infrastructure, and expanding the deployment of “large-scale energy” and related infrastructure.
The Defense Production Act is a Cold War-era legislation that grants the president authority to expand and expedite the supply of materials from the domestic industrial base for national security purposes.
In April 2025, the Trump administration ordered a halt to the development of Norway-based company Equinor’s Empire Wind project, which the Biden administration approved in 2023. However, the stop-work order was lifted a month later, and construction was allowed to resume.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the BBC in September 2025 that the Trump administration had “serious concerns” about Europe’s reliance on Chinese renewable technologies.
“It looks like the Chinese could control what’s going on with your energy system,” he said.
Wright also claimed in a Sept. 2, 2025, post on X, “Even if you wrapped the entire planet in a solar panel, you would only be producing 20 percent of global energy.”
“One of the biggest mistakes politicians can make is equating electricity with energy,” he added.
Trump, a vocal critic of wind energy, particularly in the UK, has described it as “the most expensive energy ever conceived.”
