19 attorneys general ask a court to unfreeze the Pentagon's year-long wind farm blockade

While a federal judge ordered the Interior Department to lift its wind blockade in April, a quieter and more durable freeze kept running at the Pentagon. On Thursday, 19 attorneys general from 18 states and Washington, D.C. — all Democrats — asked a court to let them join the industry lawsuit challenging the Defense Department's nearly year-long hold on new onshore wind permits.

The Pentagon (Defense Department) has not issued national-security approvals for new land-based wind projects since August 2025. Those approvals are the sign-off a developer needs to show that a project does not interfere with military radar or training routes. The freeze has stalled more than 155 projects on both public and private land, according to data from the American Clean Power Association cited by Canary Media. The stalled pipeline adds up to dozens of gigawatts of capacity. Wind already supplied more than 10% of U.S. electricity last year, and demand is rising as data centers, factories, and electrified buildings pull more power from the grid. The 18 states and Washington, D.C. behind Thursday's motion argue the freeze threatens grid reliability, energy affordability, climate goals, jobs, and state sovereignty over energy planning.

The Thursday filing is the second of two parallel legal fronts. In May, the American Clean Power Association and wind developers sued the Pentagon, arguing the delays could push projects past expiring federal tax-credit lock-in deadlines and grid interconnection windows. The 19 attorneys general now want to intervene in that suit, add their names to the request for an injunction, and put a sovereignty argument on the record.

Their motion targets the DoD track, not the Interior one. The Interior Department created a separate choke point in July 2025 when it slowed permitting for new wind and solar projects on federal land. A federal judge ordered that blockade lifted in April 2026; the agency appealed in June. The Pentagon freeze was never part of that ruling, and the DoD's national-security review has continued to block 155+ projects on public and private land without judicial oversight.

The state motion argues the DoD has used its review process to block projects with no plausible military conflict. The Texas Tribune reported in May that Texas wind projects were stalling under DoD review, and Fortune put the broader pipeline at tens of billions of dollars in stalled investment.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell is leading the coalition. "This federal permitting freeze is wreaking havoc on states' ability to deliver reliable, affordable, and clean energy to residents and businesses," Campbell said in a statement.

Trump publicly vowed during his second term to block wind farm construction, claiming his administration would try to halt wind farm construction in the United States, according to Canary Media's report. His attacks on offshore wind have drawn the loudest coverage. The onshore track, where the year-long DoD freeze has done the heavier damage to actual permitting, has stayed quieter.

A federal judge will now decide whether the 19 attorneys general have standing to join the lawsuit. If the court grants the motion and later issues an injunction, the Pentagon would be forced to process the year-old backlog. The Interior appeal is moving on a separate track in the same court system.