The Trump administration is pushing the conventions of environmental permitting processes to kill energy projects it doesn’t like, and so far the courts are giving the president an opening to do it.
A federal judge ruled last week that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management can reconsider the construction and operations plan for SouthCoast Wind, an offshore wind project off the coast of Rhode Island that had been approved under the Biden administration.
Reconsidering — and then potentially revoking — the permit is within BOEM’s rights given Trump’s January directive “requiring a second look at all wind energy projects,” Judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s opinion said.