In a major setback to its anti-climate agenda, two judges in separate rulings instructed the Trump administration to reinstate clean energy grants and allow an offshore wind farm’s construction to resume.

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Two separate rulings this week represented a major setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to obstruct renewable energy initiatives and other climate-focused projects across the nation.

On Monday, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the administration’s decision to halt millions of dollars in clean energy grants was “unlawful” as it primarily targeted projects in Democratic-led states.

“All the awardees (but one) were based in states whose majority of citizens casting votes did not support President Trump in the 2024 election,” Judge Mehta said. “[T]he political identity of a terminated grantee’s state…played a preponderant role in the October 2025 grant termination decisions,” he added.

The judge also instructed the administration to restore the grants and cover the plaintiffs’ legal fees.

The Energy Department abruptedly halted more than $7.5 billion in funding for 223 clean energy projects in October. Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, announced the cuts on social media, describing them as “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.”

Shortly after the announcement, a coalition of energy groups and the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, sued the administration over seven of those grants, including some to build electric vehicle charging stations and others to expand consumer access to clean and affordable energy. Monday’s ruling concerned these seven grants only.

The Trump administration is embroiled in other legal battles revolving around halted climate funds. One of them concerns $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration to eight organizations tasked with financing thousands of climate projects across the country, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) abruptedly halted last February.

The second defeat came on Tuesday, when a federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled that Danish wind farm developer Orsted can proceed with the construction of a $5 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. Construction was 90% complete when the Interior Department ordered a 90-day pause on that and four other offshore wind projects last month, citing undisclosed national security concerns.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth said Orsted’s project “would be irreparably harmed” by the suspension, which he called “arbitrary and capricious,” and dismissed the administration’s national security claims.

President Trump has repeatedly criticized wind energy and sought to block the expansion of offshore wind in federal waters. He has calling turbines “pathethic and so bad” and falsely claimed that they are killing people. He has often claimed that wind energy is “the most expensive form of energy,” even though it is significantly cheaper than any fossil fuel both in terms of manufacturing and electricity generation.

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Climate litigation Climate policy Offshore wind Renewable energy Second Trump administration united states