US asks federal courts to cancel permit for Maryland off-shore wind farm

According to court documents filed Friday, the Trump administration asked a federal district judge to overturn the Interior Department’s approval for a wind farm to be built off the coast Maryland in 2024.

Attorneys for the agency claimed that Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management underestimated the impact of the project on search and rescue and the potential harm it could cause to commercial fishing.

This is just the latest of a number of actions taken by the administration to stymie the development of offshore wind farms and other clean energy sources.

Attorneys from the Interior Department filed a motion at the U.S. District Court of Maryland to challenge the approval of the US Wind Project by the federal agency. The lawsuit was brought by the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland.

US Wind has said that it will defend the project's permits at court.

In a press release, Nancy Sopko, a spokesperson for the federal government said that after many years of study and analysis several agencies had issued final permits. "We will vigorously defend these permits in federal courts, and are confident that they will be upheld and prevented from being adversely affected."

US Wind is the subsidiary of Renexia SpA - Toto Holding's renewable development arm. (Reporting and editing by Mark Porter, Nia Williams, and Nichola Groom)

(source: Reuters)