{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lujan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/lujan-bennet-hickenlooper-demand-trump-administration-comply-with-injunction-to-ensure-prompt-approvals-of-wind-and-solar-energy-projects/", "Luj\u00e1n, Bennet, Hickenlooper Demand Trump Administration Comply with Injunction to Ensure Prompt Approvals of Wind and Solar Energy Projects", "2026-09-03", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "NM", "Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n", "L000570", "www.lujan.senate.gov", "lujan", "https://www.lujan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "Santa Fe, N.M. \u2014 U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, joined U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee\u2019s Rural Development and Energy Subcommittee, and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) in demanding Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Department of the Interior (DOI) comply with a preliminary injunction and ensure covered wind and solar permitting reviews are conducted promptly and without illegal bureaucratic roadblocks.\n\nIn July 2025, the DOI released an order requiring Secretary Burgum\u2019s personal approval for routine wind and solar energy project permitting decisions, which led to massive delays in power projects across the West. In November 2025, Luj\u00e1n, Bennet, and Hickenlooper sent a letter demanding answers to the DOI\u2019s order and highlighting its harmful effects to energy prices and reliability, but never received a response.\n\nIn April 2026, the U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction to prohibit the DOI and its officials from applying the July 2025 order and other internal DOI orders that make wind and solar permitting processes needlessly delayed and difficult while the court case proceeds. Since then, numerous wind and solar developers report that DOI personnel have illegally continued to force project applicants to repeatedly document and prove their eligibility for these court protections.\n\n\u201c[\u2026] Applicants also report that DOI staff have received little or no internal guidance regarding implementation of the Court\u2019s injunction. These reports are not isolated or short-lived: developers continue to describe these delays more than three months after the injunction took effect, indicating an ongoing pattern of noncompliance rather than a transitional implementation issue. DOI\u2019s actions are creating severe regulatory uncertainty, threatening to permanently sideline projects at a time when Western families, farmers, and businesses are facing rising energy demand and higher costs,\u201d wrote the senators.\n\n\u201cWestern states depend on reliable and affordable energy to keep our grid secure and our economies competitive. Wind and solar are the least expensive and fastest-to-deploy sources of new electricity generation available. Dragging out permitting timelines in direct violation of a federal court order is not only illegal, but it also needlessly stalls private investment and drives up household energy costs. Furthermore, your recent testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee, where you reportedly rejected the premise of the ruling and called it \u201cabsurd\u201d for a judge to dictate internal processes, raises concerns. While DOI has the right to appeal, it is legally obligated to comply with the injunction. Moreover, impeding the deployment of the lowest-cost energy sources directly undermines the administration\u2019s stated goals of unleashing American energy and ensuring affordability,\u201d continued the senators.\n\nThe text of the letter is available HERE and below.\n\nDear Secretary Burgum:\n\nWe write to express serious concerns regarding reports of the Department of Interior\u2019s (DOI) failure to fully comply with the U.S. District Court\u2019s April 21, 2026 preliminary injunction in Renew Northeast v. U.S. Department of the Interior, No. 1:25-cv-13961 (D. Mass.). In November 2025, we sent you a letter with questions regarding one of the DOI memos addressed in the case, but never received a response. While this injunction took immediate effect and remains in force, reports from industry participants raise serious questions regarding whether DOI has fully complied with the Court\u2019s injunction.\n\nAs you know, the Court\u2019s injunction explicitly prohibits DOI and its officials from applying the DOI Review Procedures Memorandum, the Wind and Solar Fish and Wildlife Service database Ban, Section 4 of the DOI Land Order, Section 4(c) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memorandum, and M-Opinion 37086. The Court clearly intended for the covered wind and solar permitting reviews to proceed to timely decisions without these needless bureaucratic roadblocks. Yet, wind and solar developers continue to report that DOI personnel are forcing covered project applicants to repeatedly document and prove their eligibility for these protections, despite the fact that plaintiffs previously provided DOI with a list of covered members. Applicants also report that DOI staff have received little or no internal guidance regarding implementation of the Court\u2019s injunction. These reports are not isolated or short-lived: developers continue to describe these delays more than three months after the injunction took effect, indicating an ongoing pattern of noncompliance rather than a transitional implementation issue. DOI\u2019s actions are creating severe regulatory uncertainty, threatening to permanently sideline projects at a time when Western families, farmers, and businesses are facing rising energy demand and higher costs.\n\nWestern states depend on reliable and affordable energy to keep our grid secure and our economies competitive. Wind and solar are the least expensive and fastest-to-deploy sources of new electricity generation available. Dragging out permitting timelines in direct violation of a federal court order is not only illegal, but it also needlessly stalls private investment and drives up household energy costs. Furthermore, your recent testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee, where you reportedly rejected the premise of the ruling and called it \u201cabsurd\u201d for a judge to dictate internal processes, raises concerns. While DOI has the right to appeal, it is legally obligated to comply with the injunction. Moreover, impeding the deployment of the lowest-cost energy sources directly undermines the administration\u2019s stated goals of unleashing American energy and ensuring affordability.\n\nTo ensure compliance with the law and restore certainty to energy developers and Western stakeholders, we request answers to the following questions:\n\nInternal Guidance \u2013 What types of written internal guidance or implementation instructions regarding compliance with the Court\u2019s injunction has DOI provided to staff? Please provide copies of any implementation memoranda, directives, guidance documents, training materials, emails, or other instructions on this topic. If no such materials exist, explain what alternative measures DOI has taken to ensure consistent compliance throughout DOI;\n\nApplicant Identification \u2013 What instructions has DOI provided staff for identifying plaintiffs and their members? Please provide communications to DOI staff and explain the steps that DOI is taking to minimize duplicative verification procedures.\n\nPermitting Progress \u2013 What steps has DOI taken since the Court injunction to ensure that covered permitting reviews are proceeding to timely agency action? Please identify, by bureau or office where practicable, the number of covered permitting reviews that have advanced since entry of the Court\u2019s injunction, including consultations completed, biological opinions issued, permits or other authorizations issued or denied.\n\nStalled Reviews \u2013 Which covered permitting reviews remain paused or materially delayed following entry of the Court\u2019s injunction? Please provide a list and explain the specific reason for any such delay, including whether it is related to eligibility verification, lack of implementation guidance, application of one of the court-blocked policies, or some other basis. The lists from questions 3 and 4 should add up to the total number of permitting reviews under consideration by DOI between April 21 and now.\n\nWe respectfully request a written response to these questions no later than September 1, 2026. We urge you to follow the law and comply with federal court orders to ensure that federal permitting supports, rather than undermines, an affordable and secure energy future.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-04T09:19:37Z", "2026-09-04T09:20:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lujan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/lujan-bennet-hickenlooper-demand-trump-administration-comply-with-injunction-to-ensure-prompt-approvals-of-wind-and-solar-energy-projects/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.266290131956339, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}