Attorney General Rob Bonta Sues Trump Administration for Halting Offshore Wind Power Developments
Bonta joined in suit by 17 other attorneys general
By Evan Symon, May 5, 2025 4:51 pm
Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, suing them for attempting to “freeze the development of offshore wind energy” along with 17 other attorneys general from across the country.
According to State of New York v. Donald Trump, Bonta and the attorneys general allege that Trump’s January 2oth memorandum for the temporary withdrawal of offshore wind power leases is against the law. Multiple violated federal laws were highlighted in the suit, with the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that focus on the proper way for federal agencies to develop and issue regulations, being chief amongst them. In addition, they stated that the memorandum hurts their respective states’ efforts to develop clean energy, fight pollution, and address climate change. It was additionally pointed out that the memorandum also hurt their already large investments in wind power, and could cost billions in construction and infrastructure development, as well as cause the loss of many offshore wind power related jobs.
“The Trump Administration’s directive to halt the development of offshore wind energy is illegal,” said Bonta in a statement. “This reckless directive will not only reverse America’s progress in clean energy initiatives, but our communities will also suffer the economic consequences of the President’s misguided lawlessness. The President has promised that his actions would lower energy costs, but instead, energy prices have only gone up and will continue to skyrocket. In California, we will continue to hold the President accountable for breaking the law and protect our significant progress in expanding cleaner, cheaper energy for American families.
President Trump’s memorandum states he has the authority granted to him as President in section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, noting that the Temporary Cessation is “in light of various alleged legal deficiencies underlying the Federal Government’s leasing and permitting of onshore and offshore wind projects, the consequences of which may lead to grave harm — including negative impacts on navigational safety interests, transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests, and marine mammals.”
“On January 20, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum that, among other things, indefinitely halted all federal approvals necessary for the development of offshore and onshore wind energy projects pending federal review. Pursuant to this directive, federal agencies have stopped all permitting and approval activities. Wind energy is a homegrown source of reliable, affordable energy that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, creates billions of dollars in economic activity and tax payments, and already supplies more than 10% of the country’s electricity.
“In addition to relying on onshore wind energy, in California, there are also currently five federal offshore wind leases off of California’s coast. Two are located offshore by Humboldt, while the remaining three are offshore from Morro Bay. These new developments are designed to bring substantial amounts of clean energy to the grid, including enough to power 1.6 million homes and potentially more. The President’s directive will not only derail the clean energy transition, but will also threaten to increase consumer energy costs. The President’s directive also jeopardizes substantial economic benefits to California, including the creation of thousands of union jobs, increased tax revenue particularly in the Humboldt area, and the provision of more than $50 million to support communities, Native American Tribes, or other interested parties that are expected to be affected by the lease development.”
A suit over offshore wind power
New York Attorney General Letitia James likewise addressed the urgency of the matter on Monday. She noted that the federal government recently halted the Empire 1 offshore wind project that was approved by the Biden administration, with Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum calling it a rushed project. As New York law has the state needing to meet 70% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2040, the wind farm was critical in helping the state reach those goals.
“This administration is devastating one of our nation’s fastest-growing sources of clean, reliable, and affordable energy,” added James. “This arbitrary and unnecessary directive threatens the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments, and it is delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet.”
Along with Bonta and James, the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington are behind the suit. The list is notable as many of the states are landlocked with no access to the oceans or Great Lakes.
However, the Trump administration defended the memorandum Monday, vowing to defend the new federal stance. In particular, they pointed out that offshore wind farms stood in the way of high energy production and lower energy prices.
“Instead of working with President Trump to unleash American energy and lower prices for American families, Democrat Attorneys General are using lawfare to stop the President’s popular energy agenda,” explained White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers. “The American people voted for the President to restore America’s energy dominance, and Americans in blue states should not have to pay the price of the Democrats’ radical climate agenda.”
The suit is to be heard at the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in Boston soon. Both sides have already hinted at possible appeals in the future depending on which way the court goes.
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The faerie king’s cane.
Not only are most of these offshore windmills manufactured outside the U.S. but they are an eyesore and a blight upon the sea. It’s laughable that Democrat AG’s from landlocked state with no access to the oceans or Great Lakes have joined in on Bonta’s lawsuit. If anyone needs to be investigated for shady dealings, it AG Bonta who has ZERO ethics. He’s despicable.
Guess all those Raging Lunatic Environmentalists don’t give a Rat’s Patoot that the Whales and Dolphins will be killed just as long as they can Stick it to President Trump. Thus Proving once again that the Environmental Movement is just a Cover for all the Communists that cannot come out and tell everyone that they are all Communists, because they would be rejected out of hand! There is “Truth” to the Green on the outside, Red on the Inside moniker attached to the Phony “Environmental” Movement!
John, well said.
So the California Coastal Commission blocks all development on California coasts, including housing and desalinization plants, but it’s just fine to put up hundreds of eyesore windmills along the coast. Who wants to look at a bunch of bird killing windmills?
The Democrats are a bunch of hypocritical Communists.
Very well said …….. the democrat Junta is only interested in power and control. Their plans never include actual “solutions” to problems, and in this case they are at-odds with their own imperative “Save The Whales” (endangered birds, dolphins, etc.). These ugly wastes of materials/production don’t even pay for themselves and have no recyclable value. The Coastal Commission is the best example of democrat hypocrisy and selective-outrage that you could have used! The democrat party is corrupt to-the-bone.
Rob Bonta is a democrat ideologue who has strayed from his first responsibility as Attorney General of this state. That is to protect the citizens of California from harm. He has a broad range of responsibilities but in the last 5 months he has filed 18 lawsuits against the the Trump administration.
It looks to me all of his focus his directed on the Newsom doctrine to “Stop Trump” at all costs.
It takes away time and funding from what really matters in our state! Never mind the rampant crime, including white collar crimes! Imagine if he prioritized fighting crime in this state what it could look like, cleaner sidewalks, safer neighborhoods and roads, just for starters.
The following is the current Mission Statement from the California AG office.
Mission Statement.
[It is our duty to serve our state and work honorably every day to fulfill California’s promise. The Attorney General and Department of Justice employees provide leadership, information and education in partnership with state and local governments and the people of California to:
Enforce and apply all of our laws fairly and impartially.
Ensure justice, safety and liberty for everyone.
Encourage economic prosperity, equal opportunity and tolerance.
Safeguard California’s human, natural and financial resources for this and future generations.]
That’s a tall order, considering the Democrats haven’t done jack squat for legal California citizens.
It is @ProtectFreedom They abdicated their first and foremost responsibility!
Soooo, it is okay for the Feds to close down all gas and oil leases in the previous administration, but now they do not have the power to rescind wind leases. Is there a law exeption somewhere missed by Trump?
Won’t matter if you set him facing at or away from a wind generator, Eric Swalwell
could keep the lights on.
Arizona, huh???
Guess we can remove THEM from the list of eligible move-away states, for future planning…
This is getting more serious, as California’s insurance crisis and the new fire-maps are deployed…no more state-supplied FAIR Plan for our biggest asset…it’s broke, like everything that Democrat politicians touch….
There are normal people everywhere and Arizona is no exception but the brainwashing of youth there is deep and systemic.
The decline of arizona is from all those californians who got sick of how sacramento was jacking up their lives, inflating arizona property values beyond what native arizonans can afford, demanding things like curb and gutter along with sidewalks where there were none and voting to recreate the hellhole they fled from. Same with colorado, I saw it first hand when I tempoarily lived in the denver area pre-2000. The “castro street” leanings of boulder wasn’t created by locals. Santa fe, new mexico was been altered by monied, artsy fartsy leftists from elsewhere who were enchanted by the place.
Colorado was formerly red. I’m not sure about New Mexico, but I think it’s undeniable that more than well to do clueless politically left moved to formerly poverty stricken Santa Fe and tipped state politics to the Democrats. I’m not entirely informed, but I think that most of rural New Mexico south, west and east of Albuquerque are conservative. Arizona was solidly red until massive California migration to Maricopa County, which the greater Phoenix
metropolitan area is esconced.
Bonta, the appointed AG, is a menace.
Bonta and these other AGs should be thanking Trump. Off-shore wind was such a massive money loosing boondoggle that finding a company to actually install them is impossible unless you are willing to fork over massive taxpayer funded subsides and then allow the companies to charge for the generated electricity at such astronomical rates that it causes all rate payers to have to foot the bill. But we are talking about religious zealots here and not people with any common sense so this is what we get.