Proof in Trial: Appellate Edition: Stand Up for California et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior et al.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new battery energy storage system (BESS) safety guidelines on August 18. The guidance aims to provide communities and first responders with best practices for safe BESS...more
On Friday, August 22, 2025, the Trump administration announced the cancellation of the Revolution Wind project located off the south coast of Rhode Island, east of Block Island. At the time of the stop work order, the...more
Under Secretary Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has quickly moved to implement Sections 4 and 5 of President Trump’s 7 July Executive Order 14315 titled “Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable,...more
In its first nine months, the Trump administration has taken multiple actions impacting offshore wind development and generating substantial uncertainty as to the industry’s future in the United States. Those actions have...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) issued two memos in July 2025 in furtherance of President Donald Trump’s policies to eliminate subsidies for wind and solar projects on federal lands. These directives will impact...more
The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled on August 7 that state regulators were given undue deference in deciding to roll back rooftop solar credits for homeowners, reversing an appeals court ruling that upheld the...more
On August 7, the Trump Administration announced it is cancelling the Solar for All federal grant program, which originally committed $7 billion in awarded grants to support solar in low income and disadvantaged households....more
On August 4, 2025, U.S. Department of Interior Deputy Chief of Staff-Policy Gregory Wischer issued a memorandum directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take multiple actions related to the Service’s eagle permitting...more
Environmental Vanguard is a quarterly newsletter sharing key insights from McGuireWoods’ leading environmental attorneys and consultants at the forefront of regulatory, litigation and policy developments. This issue covers...more
The frenetic pace of anti-renewable actions from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has continued into this week with the issuance of a new memorandum from Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff for policy, directing the...more
During the week of July 28, the Trump administration unleashed a new burst of actions aimed squarely at blocking wind and solar energy with the announcement of two new secretarial orders (SO) and three new policies by the...more
On July 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a memorandum establishing significantly heightened review procedures for federal decisions, actions, consultations, and other undertakings related to wind and...more
US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum recently announced four new policy measures that could significantly curtail wind energy development. These policy changes, issued in response to Secretarial Order No. 3437, Ending...more
The landscape of renewable energy development on federal lands is undergoing significant changes with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Act (“OBBA”). This legislation marks a notable departure from the prior discretionary...more
On July 15, 2025, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior (the “Department”) issued a memorandum—“Departmental Review Procedures for Decisions, Actions, Consultations, and Other Undertakings Related to...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a memorandum on July 15, 2025, announcing the end of what DOI refers to as "preferential treatment" for "unreliable, subsidy-dependent"1 wind and solar energy projects...more
On July 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) circulated an internal memorandum, requiring 68 different DOI actions related to wind and solar project development to be submitted to the DOI Office of the...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on July 17 that decisions related to solar and wind energy projects on federal lands will be reviewed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s office to end what it calls preferential...more
The Trump administration issued an executive order on July 7, 2025, titled Ending Market‑Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign‑Controlled Energy Sources, aimed at accelerating implementation of the recently enacted One...more
On July 15, 2025, the Department of Interior (DOI) issued a memorandum titled, “Departmental Review Procedures for Decisions, Actions, Consultations, and other Undertakings Related to Wind and Solar Energy Facilities” (the...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on May 30 that it will invoke emergency permitting procedures to accelerate environmental review of select geothermal energy projects, with three proposed geothermal...more
On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior reversed its April 16 stop work order and allowed the $5 billion, 2 GW, Empire Wind project 12 miles south of Long Island to proceed. The move follows an intensive lobbying...more
On Wednesday, April 16, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to order Equinor to “stop work” on its 812 megawatt Empire Wind 1 project just outside of New York Harbor....more
Wind energy projects along the coasts are facing uncertainty due to President Trump’s Presidential Memorandum issued on January 20, “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing...more
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which requires all agencies to identify actions that potentially burden deployment of domestic energy resources and develop...more