GoKawiilOn Tuesday, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction blocking the US government from applying a range of restrictions on renewable power development, at least for the parties in the suit. The ruling expands on another that was issued late last year, applying similar logic to a broader set of federal restrictions and an expanded group of renewable energy developers.
While the ruling is good news for companies looking to develop non-polluting energy sources, it leaves intact one of the only attempts the government has made to rationalize its animosity toward renewable power.
Arbitrary and capricious again
In December, a different judge in the same court ruled that the federal government’s decision to withdraw all areas of the continental shelf from potential offshore wind development violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The problem, the court determined, was that the rules were arbitrary and capricious; the only justification the government offered was that they implemented a Trump executive order.
This case differs in several key ways. First, due to recent Supreme Court precedent, restraining orders are only granted to the organizations involved in the suit. So the December decision applied to a group of offshore wind developers and coastal states. In this case, the organizations involved are trade groups that represent renewable energy developers more broadly, including both wind and solar developers, which greatly expands the types of projects the ruling applies to.
In addition, the groups involved in the suit challenged a wider variety of federal rules, including those issued by the Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The rules imposed multiple roadblocks, including extra layers of review for renewable energy projects, unusual evaluation standards, and restrictions that blocked renewable energy developers from accessing certain government resources.