In addition to requiring more substantial reviews for wind and solar projects, the department has placed additional restrictions on where wind farms can be built and required developers to submit lengthy documents in compliance with a 1940 bird protection law. The result has been permitting delays, increased administrative burden, and even greater uncertainty for developers.

The department has also issued stop-work orders for previously approved projects without providing any justification, including Revolution Wind—a project that was 80% complete. These actions are punitive to projects that have done everything right, threaten thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment, and ultimately increase risk to the point that investing in new projects becomes unattractive.