Trump eyes additional barriers to solar and wind energy

The Trump administration is eyeing additional barriers to the development of solar and wind energy on public lands.

In a memo made public late Friday, the administration said that it would seek to block projects that take up a lot of room, calling wind and solar “highly inefficient uses of Federal land.”

The memo said that the administration would “only permit those energy projects that are the most appropriate land use when compared to a reasonable range of project alternatives.”

In doing so, it will put together a report of further actions that are needed to accomplish this goal.

“Gargantuan, unreliable, intermittent energy projects hold America back from achieving U.S. Energy Dominance while weighing heavily on the American taxpayer and environment,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a written statement. 

The renewable industry balked at the effort — saying it could have significant impacts on developing wind and solar energy on public lands.

“Depending on how it’s ultimately implemented, it could have serious implications for new projects moving forward,” said Gene Grace, general counsel for the American Clean Power Association, a renewable lobbying group.

John Hensley, the organization’s senior vice president for Markets and Policy Analysis, also said that while wind and solar projects may be large, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad for the environment. 

“In the case of wind and solar, they do require much larger total project footprints, but the amount of land that’s actually disturbed … is a fraction of the total project size,” said Hensley, who noted that wind in particular is very efficient if you consider land that’s actually disturbed rather than the entire size of a wind farm.

It’s the latest in a long string of actions taken by the Trump administration to hamper wind and solar, including on public lands. President Trump’s big beautiful bill cut tax credits for these energy sources.

Separate memos issued by the Trump administration said it would consider barring future wind projects and subject wind and solar to an elevated review process, which is likely to slow them down.