April 29, 2026
The permitting landscape for wind and solar development shifted significantly last week. A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction restoring permitting conditions to their pre-January 2025 state for a substantial portion of U.S. renewable energy generation developers, reopening pathways that have been stalled for nearly a year. Ryan Blankenship, CWB®, Natural Resources Practice Leader, shares what it means for your projects and where to focus first.
Questions? Contact us for strategic support.
What Happened
On April 21, 2026, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of several permitting policies for wind and solar energy development that took effect in July 2025.
A coalition of renewable energy developers and advocacy groups filed suit in December 2025, arguing the July 2025 policies created barriers to project development that exceeded agency authority. The court agreed the coalition was likely to prevail and that continued enforcement would cause irreparable harm to projects across the country.
The injunction specifically blocks:
- The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) July 15, 2025, memorandum requiring sign-off from the Secretary of the Interior on 69 categories of wind and solar permitting actions.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) “energy density” policy that applied an energy output density standard when issuing project approvals.
- The restriction on access to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC) portal and species-specific determination keys for wind and solar projects
Does this Ruling Apply to You?
This is the most important question to answer before taking action. The injunction does not automatically apply to every wind and solar developer nationwide. It covers members of nine plaintiff organizations, a coalition representing a substantial portion of the U.S. renewable energy industry, but developers outside those groups are not protected by the ruling.
For developers who are not members of one of the nine plaintiff organizations, the DOI retains legal authority to apply the July 15, 2025, memorandum and other challenged policies.
The nine plaintiff organizations are:
- RENEW Northeast
- Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY)
- Renewable Northwest
- Southern Renewable Energy Association (SREA)
- Interwest Energy Alliance
- Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition Action (MAREC Action)
- Clean Grid Alliance (CGA)
- Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association (CCEBA)
- Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Inc.
Not sure whether this ruling applies to your organization? Contact ECT for help evaluating your options and determining the right path forward.
What this Means for Your Projects
For members of the nine plaintiff organizations, federal permitting conditions effectively have returned to their pre-January 2025 state. The table below outlines the key changes and what they mean for projects in development:
| Area | Status |
|---|---|
|
USFWS IPaC |
Restored. The portal and species determination keys are active again for wind and solar project evaluations. |
|
DOI Secretarial Review |
Enjoined. The requirement for Secretary-level sign-off on 69 permitting actions is blocked. |
|
USACE Energy Density |
Enjoined. The energy density standard applied in Army Corps reviews is blocked. |
|
Endangered Species Act (ESA) Consultations |
Resume. Re-engage your local USFWS field office to restart Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7 and Section 9/10 actions paused under the July 2025 policies. |
|
Project Timelines |
Revisit. Permitting pathways are restored — now is the time to reassess schedules and evaluate tax credit windows. |
Actions You Can Take Now
- Confirm your eligibility. Check whether your organization is a member of one of the nine plaintiff groups. If not, consider joining one to gain the protections of the injunction.
- Resume IPaC. If your organization is covered, log back in and use the portal and determination keys for species evaluations on active projects.
- Restart agency consultations. Re-engage your local USFWS field office to pick up ESA Section 7 and Section 9/10 actions that were paused.
- Revisit your schedule. With permitting pathways restored, reassess your project timeline, particularly if tax credit eligibility windows are a factor.
- Stay informed. This injunction is preliminary and may be subject to appeal. ECT is actively monitoring the litigation and will provide updates as the situation develops. In the meantime, keep project documentation current.
Get Your Projects Moving Again with ECT
ECT’s team has been tracking these regulatory changes since July 2025 and is positioned to help you move quickly now that permitting pathways have been restored for eligible developers. Whether your project was paused mid-consultation or you’re reassessing a broader portfolio, or you’re not sure whether this ruling covers your organization, our team can help:
- Determine whether the injunction applies to your organization and evaluate options if it does not.
- Restart or accelerate USFWS species evaluations, presence/absence surveys, and ESA consultations.
- Navigate USACE permitting and Clean Water Act (CWA) authorizations under the restored review framework.
- Evaluate project feasibility and timeline in light of current permitting conditions and tax credit windows.
- Keep you informed as the litigation progresses and provide guidance if conditions change.
July 25, 2025
In July 2025, a wave of new federal actions altered the review and approval process for wind and solar projects across the U.S., which have introduced likely delays, uncertainty, and risk. ECT’s experts have analyzed these developments and outlined key takeaways to help you stay on track. Facing delays or need guidance navigating these shifts? Contact us for strategic support.
Continue reading for a full breakdown of the changes and implications from Associate Market Leader, Renewable Energy, Rebecca Powell and Senior Practice Leader, Ryan Blankenship, CWB®.
Core Mandate: A New Layer of Political Review
These series of executive orders and departmental memoranda create a standardized federal approval process for the renewable energy market by establishing a new, highly centralized review system for wind and solar projects.
- Fulfilling an Executive Order (EO): The July 15, 2025 DOI memorandum is a direct implementation of Executive Order 14315 (“Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign- Controlled Energy Sources”), issued on July 7, 2025. That EO explicitly directed the Secretary of the Interior to review and revise policies to eliminate any “preferential treatment” for wind and solar facilities.
- Mandatory Upper-Level Review: The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) memorandum states that “all decisions, actions, consultations, and other undertakings” related to wind and solar facilities will now be required to pass through “multiple layers” of upper-level review within the department.
- Secretarial Sign-Off: This new process culminates in requiring final review by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for projects on federal land and 69 additional federal authorizations or approvals.
- Politicizing the Process: This directive effectively removes final authority from career staff at agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and places it directly within the office of a political appointee.
Unprecedented Scope and Reach
The power of these orders lies in their exceptionally broad scope and currently unpredictable review timelines.
- 69 Targeted Activities: The heightened scrutiny applies to 69 distinct activities across the entire project lifecycle. This includes not just final permits but also preliminary steps such as:
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, Environmental Assessments (EA), Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSI), and Records of Decision (ROD).
- A multitude of real estate transactions including 1) right-of-way applications, grants, leases, and transfers, 2) lease sales, assignments, and issuances, 3) temporary use permits, 4) access road authorizations, 5) utility corridor concurrences, and 6) decommissioning applications.
- Consultations regarding the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
- Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
- Grants and other actions requiring Federal Register Notices.
- Beyond Federal Lands: Because many projects on state and private lands require some form of federal consultation (e.g., for a Clean Water Act permit or Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) filing), the order’s reach extends across jurisdictional lines, giving federal regulatory agencies leverage over the U.S. renewable energy sector.
Strategic Context and Intent
The July 15, 2025, DOI memorandum is the tactical implementation of the broader agenda to curtail renewable energy development.
- Some Actions Currently Unaffected if not for Interagency Reviews: Permit authorizations pursuant to FAA requirements, Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, and Section 401/404/408 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) are not specifically cited in the EOs and subsequent memoranda as requiring DOI review; however, when initiated, these actions include requirements for interagency review which are specifically cited as one or more of the 69 actions requiring DOI review. The energy industry can anticipate complicating factors with the federal review of FAA, CWA, and other federal nexus triggers in portions of the nation where these requirements have not been delegated to state authorities. Other agency actions such as Jurisdictional Determinations (JDs) are review actions which are not specifically tied to project development types. Therefore, it is ECT’s direct experience that these JDs may continue without elevated review. ECT received U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued JDs on July 16 and July 18, 2025.
- Lacks Context for Implementation: Based on ECT phone inquiries with the USFWS in July 2025, the DOI memorandum lacks context for Regional or local Ecological Service Field Office (ESFO) implementation. Lacking guidance, these local offices are instructing staff to issue a temporary stay on the processing of wind and solar energy development projects until further national guidance is issued. This national guidance is anticipated in the coming weeks. Currently, local USFWS staff are unsure how to coordinate efforts with DOI and when those project specific reviews are required. In light of this uncertainty, USFWS moved to update their Information for the Planning and Consultation (IPaC) portal on July 18, 2025, to state that the resource is no longer available to process solar and wind energy projects. Additionally, species specific determination keys have been updated to exclude consideration of solar and wind energy projects.
- Creating a Permitting Purgatory: The July 15, 2025, DOI memorandum introduces an administrative bottleneck that lacks transparency and results in unpredictable delays within the permitting process. These challenges may undermine the financial viability of projects, particularly for developers striving to meet the stringent timelines required for clean energy tax credits under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” As the investment and production tax credits supporting renewable energy development sunset under OBBBA, the reduced timeframe for claiming these credits, coupled with ongoing regulatory permitting complexities, substantially affects the feasibility of numerous projects currently under development.
Implications for the U.S. Energy Sector
- Delays should be Anticipated: The new review process is expected to slow, stall, or block approvals for new wind and solar projects. In the short term, the temporary stay that USFWS has placed on processing solar and wind energy projects is problematic for Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act consultation requirements and requires further consideration for advancing Section 9/10 actions for previously available Incidental Take Permit (ITP) provisions under voluntary Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP). Interagency coordination requirements may have ripple effects to otherwise lawful actions outside the purview of the DOI (e.g., for a CWA permit administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or FAA filing).
- Future Schedules Uncertain: Based on phone conversations between ECT and the USFWS in July 2025, the agency is uncertain of any regulatory framework or anticipated timeline that may be anticipated with the DOI mandate for sign-off approval. The local ESFOs are also unsure of when USFWS Headquarters may lift the temporary stay on project reviews by issuance of a national guidance document.
- Strategies on Advancing Projects: Based on phone conversations between ECT and federal agencies in July 2025, the agencies recommend that solar and wind energy generation projects continue to use long-standing best management practices, previously issued agency guidance, and regulatory planning tools (like IPaC and the species-specific determination keys) to evaluate resource constraints and advance considerations for wind and solar energy development. Additionally, it is recommended that projects attempt to not trigger federal authorizations requiring interagency coordination (i.e., CWA Authorization) by siting projects in portions of the nation either devoid of federal lands and/or utilizing state delegated authorizations rather than federal authorizations. Many regulations allow non-federal project proponents to “self-certify” their project activities if the non-federal project sponsor can adequately demonstrate that project activities will avoid or have otherwise minor or discountable impacts to protected environmental resources. The use of “self-certifying” authorizations may remove the requirements of these orders and subsequent memoranda for DOI approval. Issuance of Technical Assistance Letters, ITPs, and HCPs by the USFWS offer optional protections afforded under Section 9/10 provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Since these actions are not currently advancing, the USFWS contacts recommended to ECT via phone conversations in July 2025, to send notice of project advancement to the agency for project development milestones (including Wind Energy Guidelines for Tier I, II, and III surveys) but to not anticipate agency response or acknowledgement until further DOI guidance is issued. In the absence of agency approvals and processing, it is ECT’s recommendation for project proponents to continue to develop projects under self-certifying provisions according to best available science and previous precedent.
The federal actions referenced and issued by various departments in July of 2025 include:
- Executive Order (EO) 14315, entitled “Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources”
- EO 14156, entitled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency”
- Presidential Memorandum, entitled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects”
- Secretary’s Order (SO) 3417, entitled “Addressing the National Energy Emergency”
- SO 3418, entitled “Unleashing American Energy”
- Department of the Interior, July 15, 2025, Memorandum, entitled “Departmental Review Procedures for Decisions, Actions, Consultations, and Other Undertakings Related to Wind and Solar Energy Facilities”
