Renewable energy teams are suing the U.S. army as a result of they are saying nationwide safety evaluations for brand spanking new wind farms on non-public land have been successfully frozen for months. The teams say this logjam jeopardizes $47 billion in investments and 1000’s of jobs in 21 states.
President Donald Trump has regularly talked about his hatred of wind energy and calls generators ugly. At present, about 10% of the electrical energy generated in the US comes from wind farms, making it the nation’s largest supply of renewable vitality. Photo voltaic is the fastest-growing.
The lawsuit towards the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was filed in U.S. District Court docket in Oregon by 9 teams, together with Renewable Northwest and the Superior Energy Alliance. They allege {that a} coverage of inaction “poses an existential menace to the wind vitality trade throughout the nation by successfully halting all new improvement exercise.”
The Pentagon says it has to stability new sources of vitality towards army wants. A army workplace often called the siting clearinghouse, which checks vitality initiatives for nationwide safety dangers, is actively evaluating these initiatives — but it surely’s a posh course of the place completely different companies need to work collectively, the Pentagon says. The Pentagon evaluates land-based wind vitality initiatives in the course of the Federal Aviation Administration evaluation.
Late Thursday, the plaintiffs filed a movement asking the courtroom to order the Pentagon to renew its abnormal evaluation course of for brand spanking new wind vitality initiatives. They included an financial evaluation by international consulting agency Charles River Associates Inc.
When requested in regards to the financial advantages in danger on Thursday, the division stated it doesn’t touch upon open litigation.
Trump ordered a short lived halt to leasing and allowing for wind vitality initiatives. Nonetheless, a federal choose struck down that order blocking wind improvement. Trump is especially hostile towards offshore wind, and the administration just lately began shopping for again leases to cease offshore wind improvement.
The American Clear Energy Affiliation first raised the problem with the stalled nationwide safety evaluations, sending a letter to the Pentagon in March to demand a proof. CEO Jason Grumet stated Thursday that the U.S. wind trade wants the federal government to hold out the traditional evaluation and allowing processes to maintain the lights on for households and companies.
Listed below are some key numbers that present the affect, as described within the financial evaluation:
106 initiatives
There are at the least 106 wind initiatives impacted by the delays. It’s a conservative estimate that solely contains initiatives that may very well be independently verified within the FAA database. All new wind initiatives can be affected if the evaluations don’t transfer ahead.
The renewable vitality teams allege that the Pentagon stopped countersigning last agreements beginning in August 2025 after which progressively slowed the remainder of the evaluation course of till all phases stopped in April. The primary quarter of 2026 was the slowest begin to the 12 months for brand spanking new installations of land-based wind energy since 2018.
$47 billion
Charles River Associates estimated that the affected initiatives characterize greater than $47 billion in investments. That is the price to construct the initiatives and ship vitality, together with shopping for generators, hiring contractors, financing commitments, paying to enter the interconnection queue to connect with the electrical grid and different sunk improvement prices.
21 states
These initiatives span 21 states. Whereas they’re geographically dispersed, a big share is concentrated in states with robust winds. That features Texas, Kansas and Illinois. 13 of the 21 states voted for Trump within the 2024 election.
Current land-based wind initiatives will be present in 43 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, ACP stated in its 2025 annual report. In 2025, 15 states added a brand new onshore wind farm. Texas has essentially the most wind energy put in, adopted by Wyoming and Oklahoma.
30 gigawatts
If these 106 wind farms are constructed, they may present almost 30 gigawatts of electrical energy that might energy thousands and thousands of houses. Of that complete, about 12 gigawatts is in Texas.
75,000 wind generators
There are greater than 75,000 onshore wind generators throughout the nation, producing about 161 gigawatts of fresh energy, based on ACP. That’s sufficient electrical energy for greater than 46 million American houses.
120,000 jobs
The evaluation estimates that the affected initiatives help greater than 120,000 jobs. This contains about 29,000 direct development jobs, greater than 80,000 oblique and induced development jobs and almost 10,000 jobs associated to wind farm operations. The complete land-based wind trade helps over 380,000 jobs throughout all 50 states, based on ACP.
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—Jennifer McDermott, Related Press
