Judge Casper blocks Interior Department policies requiring Burgum approval for wind and solar

Chief US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction on April 21, 2026, blocking Interior Department policies that required personal sign-off from Secretary Doug Burgum for nearly every step in wind and solar energy permitting on federal lands and waters. Nine clean energy advocacy and industry groups filed the lawsuit, arguing the policies imposed unlawful barriers that had already caused developers to cancel or delay numerous projects nationwide. The blocked policies included a July memorandum requiring three senior political appointees — including Burgum himself — to approve each permitting stage, a policy disfavoring "capacity dense" projects (a definition that would effectively target wind and solar), and a reinterpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act imposing stricter offshore wind standards. Casper found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on the merits and that the policies violated federal law by bypassing the Administrative Procedure Act's public comment requirements. Federal lands and waters produce about 12 percent of US energy. The ruling rejected the administration's use of informal memoranda instead of formal rulemaking to reshape energy policy.