19 States Sue the Pentagon Over Freeze on 155 Onshore Wind Projects

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on July 16 against the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in federal court in Portland, Oregon. They demand the resumption of national security reviews for onshore wind projects, frozen without public notice since August 2025.

The paralysis has stalled more than 155 onshore wind projects across at least 25 states, equivalent to tens of gigawatts of new capacity, according to the American Clean Power Association (ACP), in data compiled by Canary Media. The DoD review process operated predictably for more than a decade: turbines taller than 200 feet require clearance from the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) due to their potential interference with military radars and flight routes.

The motion, led by Oregon and joined by California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Washington, and 10 other states, seeks to intervene in a lawsuit the wind industry filed in May 2026 against the same blockade. Some frozen projects had already completed mitigation negotiations and were only awaiting the DoD's final sign-off.

The attorneys general argue the freeze violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as an arbitrary decision without public justification, and estimate more than $2,687 million in private investment at risk.

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport stated her state's residents need more power generation, not less, to lower record-high electricity bills in the PJM wholesale market, according to WorkBoat. The national security argument advanced by the Executive has already been rejected by federal judges on five occasions in parallel litigation over offshore wind. For the Latin American supply chain, the blockade introduces uncertainty: component manufacturing that supplies wind farms in Mexico and Central America depends partly on U.S. market volume.

The coalition is seeking a court order compelling the Pentagon to immediately resume national security reviews for onshore wind projects. The litigation, the first of this scope against the blockade, will define the Executive's latitude to veto energy infrastructure on defense grounds.

This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.