A federal court in Oregon just handed Advanced Power Alliance and our co-plaintiffs a win in our fight against the Department of Defense’s unlawful freeze on wind energy project reviews. Advanced Power Alliance joined Renewable Northwest and several other organizations as co-plaintiffs in this important challenge.
In a landmark ruling issued August 6, 2026, Judge Karin J. Immergut denied the government’s motion to dismiss in full, granted our motion for a preliminary injunction, and stayed the Department’s review freeze nationwide while the case moves forward. The court rejected every threshold argument the Department raised, including its challenge to the plaintiff’s standing to sue, and found that we are likely to succeed on the merits. The Department of Defense (Department of War), the court held, cannot suspend the statutory and regulatory review process, including its own binding deadlines, while it reassesses how it evaluates drone and other threats.
To keep the Department accountable, the court also ordered it to file a status report every 30 days showing that review has resumed at every stage of the process, from projects awaiting a countersignature on a mitigation agreement to those still waiting on their first review meeting.
APA President Jeffrey Clark commented, saying, ” As every corner of America faces rapidly rising demand for electricity, it’s essential that we leverage all of our energy resources to deliver power affordably and reliably. This important case puts the Military Aviation and Installation Assurance Siting Clearinghouse back to work and ends the self-imposed freeze that has deliberately blocked more than 100 wind energy projects totaling over 29,000 MW of capacity across the country. Wind works. It’s abundant and affordable and this ruling is a win for American electricity consumers.”
This ruling does not end the case, but it puts a stop to an unlawful freeze that left dozens of projects, and billions of dollars of investment, sitting in limbo. Advanced Power Alliance will keep watching closely to make sure the Department follows through. For more information, or to join APA, contact Jeff Clark at Jeff.Clark@PowerAlliance.org.
