‘Definitely playing favorites:’ Interior memo could strike dire blow to wind and solar projects

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.”

The department’s new policy requires Burgum’s office to weigh in on virtually every aspect of or permit for solar and wind projects with a nexus to Interior. That includes siting, navigating threats to endangered species, road access and right-of-way permissions.

“There are some projects — particularly in the West because that’s mostly where you’re going to see this Interior footprint — that are going to be directly impacted by this, significantly impacted by this,” said Walter McLeod, managing director of Monarch Strategic Ventures, which finances solar and battery storage projects.

Those steps would ensnare a massive amount of projects, said Ted Boling, a partner at law firm Perkins Coie who spent decades working on permitting at Interior and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Projects that begin on private land but must cross public land — such as transmission lines that connect solar and wind to other power lines carrying electricity to populated areas — require authorization from Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, he said. Transmission projects, which can span hundreds of miles, that cross national wildlife refuges on Interior-managed land may also need Burgum’s approval, Boling added.

Some companies and clean energy advocates worried the directive would slow solar and wind approvals to a crawl by creating a bottleneck at Burgum’s office. The memo outlining the new marching orders referenced several executive orders that were designed to either elevate fossil fuel production or stymie renewable power.

Solar, wind and battery storage accounted for 93 percent of power capacity added to the grid last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas turbines face a yearslong backlog. New coal-fired power plants are unlikely given the competition from more cost-effective renewables and natural gas despite the Trump administration’s efforts to revive the coal industry.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said the memo was a “short-sighted policy” that would strangle U.S. power supply just as demand is surging from artificial intelligence and manufacturing, among other drivers.

“This is ideology over practicality,” he said.

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), who helped negotiate the compromise providing more time for wind and solar projects to qualify for tax credits, said he is “concerned enough” that he is asking Burgum for a meeting to clarify the memo.

Requiring Burgum’s direct input at so many turns of each project seemed “a pretty bald-faced attempt to throw wrenches in the works,” said Steve Feldgus, who was principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management at Interior during the Biden administration.

American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet called the new policy "obstruction" and an "intentional effort to slow energy production." He said it hinders Trump's pledge to lower energy prices and secure AI investment by impeding new power from connecting to the grid amid rising electricity demand.

“In stark contradiction to the Administration’s commitment to tackling bureaucracy, this directive adds three new layers of needless process and unprecedented political review to the construction of domestic energy projects," Grumet said in a statement.

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.”

Isa Dominguez contributed to this report.