A top Bureau of Land Management official Wednesday told lawmakers there is no need to pursue a bipartisan bill that aims to fold renewable energy into existing fossil fuel leases, describing the measure as redundant.
Mitchell Leverette, BLM’s Eastern states director, testified before a House Natural Resources panel as it weighed a range of legislation spanning energy issues on public lands, including the “Co-Location Energy Act,” H.R. 5639.
That bill, sponsored by Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy (R), would open the door for new wind and solar projects to be added onto existing leases for oil, natural gas, coal and geothermal power production.
But Leverette told lawmakers that BLM’s priority is to “further the Trump administration’s goals” and said the agency would not be backing the proposal, as it has with a slew of legislation that would hike up fossil fuel extraction.
