Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik faced pointed questions Wednesday over his agency’s role in elongating the timelines for clean energy projects on federal lands, as he appeared before a Senate panel to defend his agency’s budget request.
Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) grilled Nesvik during a session on his agency’s fiscal 2027 budget. Whitehouse asserted Nesvik let FWS “get wrapped up in the administration’s fraudulent war on low-cost clean energy.”
As part of the Trump administration’s push to block new wind and solar developments, Trump officials have used required wildlife approvals and consultations from FWS as a choke point to hold up their construction.
In particular, last year FWS blocked wind and solar developers from using a government website called the Information for Planning and Consultation database, a tool that allowed them to move through what had historically often been a brief permitting process for many projects.
