U.S. Department
of Justice
Green Energy
In recent history, the Natural Resources Section’s work has expanded to include defending federal approvals associated with renewable energy projects on public or federal lands, or funding of similar projects on non-federal land. This has included defending Bureau of Land Management leases for solar projects on public lands in the West; Bureau of Ocean Energy Management leases and operations approvals for offshore wind farms on the Outer Continental Shelf; and Department of Energy funding for renewable energy research and demonstration projects. Among other projects, this has included litigation involving the Ivanpah project (a 370-megawatt solar power facility in the Mojave Desert) and the Vineyard Wind project (an 800-megawatt wind project 12 miles offshore of Martha’s Vineyard).
In addition to NEPA claims, our renewable energy work can include claims focused on compliance with the action agency’s authorizing statute (for example, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act) and agency review of potential impacts on historic or cultural resources under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. We often work with other ENRD sections on renewable energy cases, as the underlying land or ocean resources can implicate authorizations or procedures under the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.