Renew Northeast v. U.S. Department of the Interior

The defendants filed a notice of appeal of the preliminary injunction and the order denying dismissal.

Almost two months after granting a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of five federal agency actions that plaintiffs alleged “choke” private developers’ ability to build new wind and solar energy generation projects, the federal district court for the District of Massachusetts denied the federal defendants’ motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenge to those actions. The court was not persuaded by the defendants’ argument that the challenged actions were not “final agency actions” subject to review under the APA. The court noted, moreover, that it had concluded in its decision granting a preliminary injunction that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims. The court dismissed the plaintiffs’ challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s January 2025 announcement that it would temporarily cease issuance of eagle incidental take permits to wind energy facilities. The court found that the withdrawal of this permitting ban after the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit mooted this claim. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative filed an amicus brief in support of the motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of several rural-advocacy organizations with an interest in promoting renewable energy. More discussion of the case is available in this Climate Law Blog post.

Order issued allowing plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction.