Weeks after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum imposed new restrictions on solar power development on public land, the Bureau of Land Management’s acting leader met several times with other Interior Department officials on solar, according to a calendar of meetings obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News through a public records request.
Although the calendar is an indication that solar isn’t totally wiped from the BLM agenda, some prominent industry representatives say they’ve seen no other signs that the Trump administration has altered its position about renewable energy development.
Ben Norris, the Solar Energy Industries Association’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said in an emailed statement that they’ve had no indication that BLM plans to begin incorporating solar into President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, which thus far has centered on coal and critical minerals mining, as well as oil and gas leasing.
“Secretary Burgum has slammed the door on solar and storage,” Norris said, despite “rising electricity prices and a massive increase in demand” for power caused by artificial intelligence and the energy-draining data centers that run AI.
