It ain’t over ’til it’s over, but the proposed $1.5 billion, 500-megawatt Four Creeks wind farm in Peoria County, Illinois has just passed a key step in the approval process. The new milestone is yet another indication that the domestic wind industry will continue to play a key role in the US energy transition, regardless of the topsy-turvy energy policy articulated by US President Donald Trump.
If you’re somewhat shocked to hear word of a new wind farm proposal in the US, join the club. The President has spent considerable time, energy, and taxpayer dollars in a Herculean effort to keep new wind turbines from cropping up around the US under his watch. However, his efforts have earned only mixed success so far.
Offshore wind turbines keep slipping through the cracks, even though virtually every offshore wind farm in the US is subject to federal authority. Opportunities for wind power also persist on land, where the President’s direct authority is limited to projects on federal property.
Trump attempted to work around that obstacle in August of 2025, when he weaponized an otherwise routine wind project review process that applies to projects on non-federal property. The change in policy threw at least 155 onshore wind projects totaling 45 gigawatts into limbo, prompting a lawsuit from a coalition of clean energy organizations and wind energy developers.
In July of this year, Attorneys General in 19 states intervened in support of the lawsuit. The participants included Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington State.
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