Over a dozen states sued President Donald Trump over his offshore wind freeze, but according to America First Legal (AFL), their agencies were unable to provide evidence of environmental or economic harm in response to specific records requests.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration in May 2025 following Trump’s day-one presidential memorandum freezing offshore wind permits on all areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, alleging it would harm their state’s environment, economy and energy security, among several other claims. AFL requested state records from January 20, 2025, to December of the same year that documented an increase in harmful air pollutants, adverse economic effects or negative climate impacts related to the pause.
Five state agencies have answered the requests to date, noting they had no such records, according to the documents obtained by AFL and viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. State agencies from Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan replied to AFL’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
“It would appear a pattern exists in litigation against the Trump Administration: plaintiff states suing the Administration cannot back their pleadings with actual evidence,” Vice President of America First Legal Dan Epstein told the DCNF. “The federal courts lack jurisdiction to hear cases challenging presidential actions when the complaining parties lack standing; these lawsuits risk involving the courts in political theater, rather than a good faith legal dispute, aimed at obstructing lawful executive authority.”
The Illinois Power Agency told the DCNF it had no further comment beyond the FOIA response, while the Maryland Energy Information, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
AFL told the DCNF that “to determine whether their claims of injury were true and accurate, AFL filed multiple records requests with the plaintiffs. … These states’ responses to AFL’s records requests repeatedly expose a lack of standing. AFL will continue to expose baseless litigation efforts aimed at undermining the America First agenda.”
AFL pointed the DCNF to other recent investigations it’s pursued that purportedly exposes a lack of legal standing for lawsuits against the Trump administration, including ones filed by California and Washington.
The states’ lawsuit also alleged the memorandum was arbitrary, capricious, issued without adequate justification and interfere with the state’s green energy goals.
“The Wind Directive and the Agency Defendants’ implementing actions threaten significant adverse environmental and public health consequences to New York residents, including by delaying much needed air quality improvements by stalling the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, increasing reliance on aging natural gas ‘peaking units,’” the lawsuit states. “The Wind Directive and Agency Defendant’ implementation of it risk depriving States of energy reliability and affordability benefits, economic activity, health benefits, and environmental protection that were to come from their substantial investments in wind power.”
The Illinois Power Agency did note in its FOIA response that its authority did not extend to two of AFL’s requests.
The Trump administration has cracked down on offshore wind, taking more actions beyond the day-one pause through issuing stop-work orders and freezing all five major offshore wind farms under construction on Dec. 22, citing national security concerns. In contrast, the Biden administration favored offshore wind and cracked down on conventional resources like oil, gas and coal in the name of environmentalism.
Notably, many of the Trump administration’s offshore wind actions have been blocked by judges, with a Biden-nominated federal judge most recently staying a stop-work order on Tuesday. A judge overturned part of the memorandum on Dec. 8.
Additionally, critics of offshore wind say it may be less environmentally friendly than advocates claim, pointing to beached marine mammals and debris from faulty turbines.
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