POLITICO reports on a Trump administration memo mandating that the Interior Secretary must personally approve almost every aspect of wind and solar projects on federal land, which could result in stunted project development efforts. United's Harry Godfrey criticized the administration's decision, arguing that the memo creates harmful bureaucratic red tape and undermines proven, affordable advanced energy solutions to meet rising energy demand.
The Trump administration has been aggressively working to suffocate the wind and solar industry in the United States. Its latest action could do the trick.
As POLITICO first reported on Wednesday, the Interior Department issued a directive requiring Secretary Doug Burgum’s personal approval for even the most routine activities related to wind and solar projects on federal lands. The directive could have a much broader impact, affecting scores of projects on private land that must pass through or connect with projects on Interior-managed federal land, according to industry officials, financiers and lawyers.
The memo comes as President Donald Trump has sought to squelch new wind and solar projects through executive orders and limit use of federal tax credits that moderate Republicans fought to preserve in their megalaw earlier this month. Trump has decried those energy sources as harmful to the power grid’s reliability and said those industries ultimately benefit China, which controls a sizable chunk of the world’s wind and solar supply chains
But the directive sparked bipartisan angst on Capitol Hill. Congressional Republicans fear a future Democratic administration will use these moves as a roadmap to derail fossil fuel energy sources. Democrats worry Trump’s efforts to stunt less expensive wind and solar projects will raise electricity prices across the country.
“It is definitely playing favorites and they’ve made it very clear they do not support continuation of new wind and solar projects,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), adding the Interior memo “is like putting the final nail into” a last-minute compromise she helped negotiate as part of the GOP’s megalaw offering more time for projects that begin construction in the next 12 months to qualify for tax credits.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, expressed concern about potential delays in approving energy infrastructure.
“Every energy project needs to be permitted as fast as possible regardless of resource,” she said, adding that Republicans dealt with the “heavy hand” of the Biden administration’s slow approvals of LNG, drilling and pipelines over the last four years.
“We know what that feels like,” she said. The Trump administration “should remember this. I just think it should be a fair playing field and we ought to move forward with all types.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, warned the move would hamstring the U.S. economy by delaying additions of readily available power.
“The president and Secretary Burgum will then be responsible for raising electricity prices on every state in this country because that will be the end result of that kind of abuse of permitting,” he said. “I would warn them if they create this as a precedent and it survives, a future administration could play the same game with oil and gas pipelines and leases.”
Harry Godfrey, managing director of Advanced Energy United, who leads the clean energy organization’s federal engagement efforts, said in a statement it is “deeply disappointing to see the Administration yet again singling out affordable energy sources for added scrutiny, particularly at a time of rising demand. This is the antithesis of expedited permitting that the Administration supposedly favors.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), put it bluntly: “It sounds blatantly political on the face of it.”
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