Attorney General Bonta Opposes Federal Efforts Obstructing Wind and Solar Energy Development

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a coalition of 20 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge brought by clean energy trade associations against six federal agencies: the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), the Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) (collectively, Agencies) that have taken actions to inhibit, delay, and disadvantage wind and solar development across federal lands and waters. In the brief, the attorneys general urge the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to grant a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the Agencies’ actions are arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because they unreasonably and unjustifiably target wind and solar development and no other energy sources.

“Wind and solar energy are more than just power sources — they lower energy bills and create good jobs, cleaner air, and a stronger future for our communities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We will not stand by as federal actions attack these projects and take away opportunities for people to access reliable, affordable, and sustainable power. While the federal administration rigs the system for their fossil-fuel friends, we remain committed to ensuring that every family, community, and business has the chance to benefit from a clean energy future.”

The Agencies’ challenged actions make it harder to develop wind and solar projects. Each challenged action changes longstanding agency processes and legal determinations with the effect of delaying and preventing the permitting and construction of wind and solar facilities on both private and public lands. Together, the actions impose substantial and unprecedented obstacles to renewable energy development. The challenged actions include:

• DOI’s unprecedented departmental review procedure, which requires wind and solar projects to be approved by three senior officials, including personal approval by the Secretary of the Interior, effectively freezing and delaying renewable energy permitting. This jeopardizes renewable project timelines and federal tax incentives.
• DOI’s changes in project approval criteria to prioritize “capacity density,” a metric that inherently disadvantages wind and solar projects and effectively biases federal land permitting in favor of conventional energy sources.
• Army Corps' changes in project approval criteria to consider capacity density and aesthetic impacts that systematically disadvantage wind and solar projects, including on private land, by favoring higher density conventional energy sources.
• USFWS arbitrarily prohibiting wind facilities from obtaining eagle incidental take permits under Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act while allowing other energy technologies to receive such permits.
• DOI arbitrarily denying wind and solar developers’ access to the publicly funded USFWS Information for Planning and Consultation database, impairing their ability to identify protected species and obtain necessary permits under the Endangered Species Act, while not imposing the same restriction on other energy technologies.
• DOI’s reinstatement and reinterpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Act, which reinterpreted the law in a narrow way to block new offshore wind projects, even though the law does not require such a prohibition.  

In the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition support the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, asserting that the Agencies’ actions fail to provide a reasoned explanation, exceed their statutory authority, and are procedurally deficient because they were implemented without the required notice and comment process. The Agencies’ actions will not only derail the clean energy transition nationwide but will also threaten to increase consumer energy costs.

In filing the brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.