New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is one of 17 attorneys general who have initiated litigation against the Trump administration over its halting of permits for offshore wind projects.
The complaint calls the government’s action “arbitrary and capricious” and the presidential memorandum upon which the actions are based “unlawful.”
The lawsuit, filed in the federal district of Massachusetts, presents a collective challenge to the Trump administration’s halt on federal approvals for wind energy projects. Setting aside other aspects of the president’s wind memorandum that the attorneys general do not concede the legality of, ”the legal challenge in the lawsuit filed is to that portion of the memorandum known as the Wind Directive.”
In the complaint New Jersey specifically references three offshore wind projects that have been jeopardized by the directive. These are Atlantic Shores, Invenergy Wind Offshore and Attentive Energy. The complaint says that the directive puts at risk the state’s ability to meet “emission reduction requirements” and “the resources New Jersey has invested in those goals to date.”
As the state pursues the legal challenge, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2) called the lawsuit “a slap in the face to every taxpayer and every family struggling to pay their energy bills.”
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
