A federal judge on Monday struck down President Trump’s halt on approvals of all wind power projects on federal lands and waters, dealing a significant legal setback to the administration’s campaign against wind farms.

Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote that the president’s sweeping executive order, which halted all leasing of public lands and waters for new wind projects, was “arbitrary and capricious,” violating federal law.

Judge Saris, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, said the Interior Department had not provided a “reasoned explanation” of its decision to stop approving wind projects, as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. Instead, she said, the “agency defendants candidly concede that the sole factor they considered in deciding to stop issuing permits was the president’s direction to do so.”

Read more in the New York Times here.

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