California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a coalition of state attorneys general in challenging President Donald Trump’s pause on wind energy development. The lawsuit, filed on May 5, 2025 in federal court in Massachusetts, seeks to block Trump’s directive that temporarily withdraws the Federal Outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing and calls for a review of the Federal government’s wind energy leasing and permitting practices.
The attorneys general argue that Trump does not have the authority to stop permitting and that agencies violate the related statutory authority in implementing the order. They also argue that the directive and the agencies implementation “jeopardize the continued development of a power source critical to the States’ economic vitality, energy mix, public health, and climate goals…”
“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,” Bonta said in a statement.
“The President has promised that his actions would lower energy costs, but instead, energy prices have only gone up and will continue to skyrocket,” Bonta said. “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.”
The coalition includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Washington, D.C.
There are five federal offshore wind leases off of California’s coast. This includes three sites for 3 GW of wind energy in the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA) and two sites for 1.5 GW of wind energy in the Humboldt Wind Energy Area (WEA).
The California lease areas were part of the Biden administration’s national target of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030.