Wind and solar developers have sued two federal agencies over six actions that they say were designed to decimate the renewable energy industry — even as federal courts have rebuked similar efforts by the Trump administration.
Taken together, the actions by the Interior Department and Army Corps of Engineers will force wind and solar technology into “second-class status,” illegally “picking winners and losers among energy sources” while consumers’ utility bills skyrocket, the coalition said in a statement accompanying their lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts.
“With household electricity bills continuing to sharply rise across the country, consumers should not be barred from access to one of the most affordable sources of electricity available today,” the coalition’s statement said. “If the administration’s actions are allowed to continue, they will have catastrophic and lasting consequences for the energy industry, the nation’s electric grid, and millions of American consumers.”
The lawsuit challenges moves by Interior to limit wind and solar developers’ access to key information, impose strict new permitting requirements and jam up new project reviews. Challengers say the department has also tipped the scales against solar and wind by requiring evaluations of whether a project is an “efficient” use of public land and barring wind developers from obtaining permits available to providers of other types of energy.
