Renewable energy teams are suing the U.S. army as a result of they are saying nationwide safety opinions for brand new wind farms on personal land have been successfully frozen for months. The teams say this logjam jeopardizes $47 billion in investments and hundreds of jobs in 21 states.
President Donald Trump has ceaselessly talked about his hatred of wind energy and calls generators ugly. Presently, about 10% of the electrical energy generated in america 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 business throughout the nation by successfully halting all new growth exercise.”
The Pentagon says it has to stability new sources of vitality towards army wants. A army workplace often known as the siting clearinghouse, which checks vitality tasks for nationwide safety dangers, is actively evaluating these tasks — but it surely’s a posh course of the place totally different companies need to work collectively, the Pentagon says. The Pentagon evaluates land-based wind vitality tasks in the course of the Federal Aviation Administration overview.
Late Thursday, the plaintiffs filed a movement asking the court docket to order the Pentagon to renew its bizarre overview course of for brand new wind vitality tasks. 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 mentioned it doesn’t touch upon open litigation.
Trump ordered a short lived halt to leasing and allowing for wind vitality tasks. Nonetheless, a federal choose struck down that order blocking wind growth. Trump is especially hostile towards offshore wind, and the administration not too long ago began shopping for again leases to cease offshore wind growth.
The American Clear Energy Affiliation first raised the difficulty with the stalled nationwide safety opinions, sending a letter to the Pentagon in March to demand an evidence. CEO Jason Grumet mentioned Thursday that the U.S. wind business wants the federal government to hold out the traditional overview 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 tasks
There are at the least 106 wind tasks impacted by the delays. It’s a conservative estimate that solely consists of tasks that could possibly be independently verified within the FAA database. All new wind tasks shall be affected if the opinions don’t transfer ahead.
The renewable vitality teams allege that the Pentagon stopped countersigning closing agreements beginning in August 2025 after which progressively slowed the remainder of the overview course of till all phases stopped in April. The primary quarter of 2026 was the slowest begin to the yr for brand new installations of land-based wind energy since 2018.
$47 billion
Charles River Associates estimated that the affected tasks symbolize greater than $47 billion in investments. That is the fee to construct the tasks 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 growth prices.
21 states
These tasks 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.
Present land-based wind tasks might be present in 43 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, ACP mentioned 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’ll present practically 30 gigawatts of electrical energy that would energy hundreds of 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 unpolluted energy, in line with ACP. That’s sufficient electrical energy for greater than 46 million American houses.
120,000 jobs
The evaluation estimates that the affected tasks assist greater than 120,000 jobs. This consists of about 29,000 direct development jobs, greater than 80,000 oblique and induced development jobs and practically 10,000 jobs associated to wind farm operations. The whole land-based wind business helps over 380,000 jobs throughout all 50 states, in line with ACP.
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—Jennifer McDermott, Related Press
