Interior’s new solar, wind policy sparks concerns of ‘shadow ban’
Critics say the Interior Department is adding layers of bureaucracy and red tape for renewable energy projects, to the detriment of growing American energy.
A new policy requiring the Interior secretary to approve all aspects of solar and wind project permitting has opened the floodgates for critics who say it’s the clearest signal yet that green energy is not part of President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda.
It has also prompted pushback from supporters who say the new policy is a long-overdue move to level the regulatory playing field following four years of the Biden administration prioritizing renewable energy development on federal lands.
Prominent Democrats, conservation groups and renewable energy trade groups all bashed the new policy, outlined in an Interior Department memorandum that directs the Interior secretary to review everything from the initial decision to begin a formal evaluation of a solar or wind project application, to the issuance of a record of decision approving it.
The Trump administration, in formally announcing the new policy Thursday, said it complies with a handful of presidential orders signed by Trump that are designed to reduce barriers to energy production. It also will help ensure projects conform with the administration’s energy policies and goals.
But it adds a substantial new regulatory layer to the already onerous process to authorize the commercial-scale solar and wind projects capable of powering millions of homes that proponents say are needed to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are helping drive climate warming.
It also raises concerns about the fate of dozens of large-scale solar and wind projects that were either under review during the Biden administration, or are awaiting the start of the regulatory review process.
“At a time when energy demand is skyrocketing, adding more layers of bureaucracy and red tape for energy projects at the Interior Department is exactly the wrong approach,” said Stephanie Bosh, senior vice president of communications for the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Jay Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, which represents renewable energy producers, labeled the “new layers of needless process and unprecedented political review” as an “intentional effort to slow energy production.”
It’s the clearest signal yet that solar and wind will play little role in the Trump administration’s energy dominance campaign, said California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
“This memo confirms what we've known all along: The Trump administration is deliberately sabotaging clean energy on our public lands,” Huffman said.
The new solar and wind project review directive — which also requires permitting decisions for individual projects be sent for review by Deputy Secretary Kate MacGregor — “amounts to a tsunami of red tape and roadblocks for private investment in wind and solar energy projects,” said Ray Long, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy.
Critics say Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees nearly 60,000 employees responsible for managing more than 500 million acres, will be hard pressed to carve out time to review dozens of requests for access roads or individual project plans of development.
Kabir Green, director of federal affairs for nature at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the new policy is meant to serve as “a shadow ban” on new wind and solar projects, adding “the notion that the Secretary should personally sign off on every project is absurd.”
“Can you imagine if Secretary Burgum ran his billion-dollar tech company like this — reviewing every single IT ticket himself?” Green said. “That kind of micromanagement would paralyze any operation, and here it’s being used deliberately to snuff out renewable energy development.”
Representatives with the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management declined to comment, and instead referred to press materials announcing the new policy.
The Interior Department under President Donald Trump has largely dismissed solar and wind. The White House’s fiscal 2026 budget request proposes to zero out funding for BLM’s renewable energy program, saying the program “facilitates unreliable, intermittent energy to the detriment of American consumers, businesses, and communities.”
In addition, Congress this month approved the massive tax and energy One Big Beautiful Bill Act promoted by Trump that, among other things, moves to end green-energy tax credits. Wind and solar projects would be able to get tax credits only as long as they start construction of projects by June 2026, or place them into service by the end of 2027.
Tom Pyle, president of the conservative-aligned American Energy Alliance, said the recent moves by Congress and the Trump administration, including the new policy on wind and solar project reviews, are part of a much-needed regulatory “course correction” designed to create a level playing field for all energy sources.
“I have no sympathy for the wind and solar lobby crying about the provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill and all these efforts by Trump administration to put more scrutiny on projects,” Pyle said.
“The federal government should be good stewards of the public lands and treat these [renewable energy] sources like any other source, and it is clear and obvious that they received a wide berth of freedom and favoritism in the previous administration,” Pyle added. “The idea that these sources of energy generation are now getting scrutiny is actually a good thing.”
Meanwhile, dozens of large-scale solar and wind projects sit in the federal regulatory pipeline awaiting action.
The Bureau of Land Management’s active renewable projects webpage — which has not been updated since Trump took office to begin a second term in January — lists at least 35 solar projects and three wind projects that were either under formal environmental review, or in the preliminary review stage, when former President Joe Biden left office.
These 38 projects, if approved and built, would have the capacity to power more than 9 million homes.
The handful of large-scale solar power projects that had advanced during the Biden administration but remain in regulatory limbo include the Esmeralda 7 Solar Project in Nevada that would have a capacity to power millions of homes and rank among the world’s largest.
By: Scott Streater
Source: Politico Pro
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