Former President Donald Trump’s Interior secretary said Wednesday that a pair of recent rulings by the Supreme Court opens the door to new lawsuits challenging offshore wind projects planned in federal waters.
David Bernhardt, who served as the second of two Interior secretaries under Trump, said the high court rulings “may prove to be the legal equivalent of a category 5 hurricane crashing into [the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s] current execution of the offshore wind program.”
“Time will tell,” Bernhardt said in a text message with POLITICO’s E&E News.
Bernhardt’s statements underscore the potential risks facing offshore wind from a conservative Supreme Court and a second Trump term. The industry is a foundational piece of President Joe Biden’s attempts to slash planet-warming emissions and create new blue-collar jobs.
