Legal experts see a new Trump administration move to block an offshore wind project alongside Maryland’s Ocean City as a targeted strike against clean-energy infrastructure amid rising electricity demand, with some going so far as to call the action illegal.

On Friday the administration asked a federal judge to void US Wind’s permit and send it back to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for another review. The U.S. Department of Justice argued that the permit was granted without fully satisfying statutory requirements and the approval process did not address potential impacts on other offshore uses, such as fishing.

In a written statement, Nancy Sopko, vice president of external affairs for US Wind, said the company was “confident that all of our project’s permits were validly issued.

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