The Trump administration is once again signaling that renewable energy on federal lands is no longer a top priority.
The Interior Department on Wednesday announced it is moving to rescind a Biden-era Bureau of Land Management rule finalized last year that aimed to incentivize renewable energy development on federal lands by cutting as much as 80 percent of the acreage rental rates and capacity fees for wind and solar power projects. It also allowed cuts in some fees if the project developers used “American-made parts and materials.”
Interior said Wednesday that the rule, which has been in place since July, “biased” federal lands policy toward promoting wind, solar and geothermal power projects over other energy sources, such as oil and natural gas.
“Eliminating the Biden administration’s preferential treatment of unaffordable, unreliable ‘intermittent’ projects and dismantling excessive, one-sided restrictions on traditional energy sources like oil, gas, and critical minerals, will unlock the full potential of America’s natural resources,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
